


The Traitor and The Communist

by Thefandomnerdling



Category: Eddsworld - All Media Types
Genre: Flashbacks, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, Not just a bromance, Red Army, Swearing, The End spoilers, Tord Redemption, mlm
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:20:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 30,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26672818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thefandomnerdling/pseuds/Thefandomnerdling
Summary: After failing to get his giant robot Tord gets kicked out of the Red Army, without a home or food Tord must go back to some old flatmates for help.(Updates every Friday/Saturday if I can)
Relationships: Tom & Tord (Eddsworld), Tom/Tord (Eddsworld)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 64





	1. Park walker

**Author's Note:**

> Each chapter has a respective song, this chapter's song is Weak By: AJR. Also this is a repost of my fanfic of the same name on wattpad, this is mostly just to get me used to how the Ao3 interface works so I apologize in advance is somethings are a bit odd. Just tell me and I'll try to fix it, thanks for understanding.

### Park Walker

Tink,tink,tink. The pebble Tord was kicking fell down the side of the small grassy knoll he was on. The small sound ringing even louder on the almost silent night aside from the odd cricket. Tord shoved his hands into the pockets of his slightly torn red hoodie. He continued down the small path following it's twists and turns, he yawned and quickly tried to silence the noise with his robotic right arm. He had a few scratches on that side of his body starting a little after his knee on his right leg, old scratches that turned into scars not so long ago. Tord let out a quiet, long sigh as he adjusted the dark green duffle bag on his shoulder, as he walked slightly off the beaten path, before stopping and leaning against a nearby tree. He let gravity pull him to the ground, Tord showed no signs of getting up anytime soon. 

He hit his head on the trunk of the tree, he stared off at the lake the knoll was above, his blinking slowing down till his eyes didn't open again. His duffle slipped off his shoulder landing beside him. He let out another sigh this one sounding more tried and worn out. He pulled his arms up of the ground to rub his eyes, much like his arm his one of his eyes was severely damaged, causing him to be blind in his right eye. Tord's whole body felt heavy and worn, he slouched forward as he drifted into a deep sleep. 

_

Tord's eyes flew open as he awoke to the sounds of the morning. He groans in response to the birds chirping and singing, he may have also hit his head against the side of the tree, but that was beside the point. The sky was overcast and the air was thick. Tord could smell the moisture in the air as it chilled, the wind started picking up and the sound of leaves ruffling together drowned out some of the bird's noise. Tord looked up the darker clouds that where traveling in fast.   
"I have to get out of here." Tord mumbled to himself through a heavy Norwegian accent. He slowly lifted his body off the ground, Tord hissed in pain as a jagged piece of bark from the tree sliced through his palm. He looked at his now bleeding hand.   
"Perfect." He growled at it, his fingers wiggled back in response. Tord looked around for something to help stop the bleeding. He opened the duffle but it had nothing for his hand all the bag contained was a few empty water bottles, a phone and it's charger, wrappers, a switch blade, a piece of paper folded two times over and a lighter. Spotting nothing he applied pressure to the new wound. Grumbling Tord started of down the path as the clouds drew nearer.

Tord licked his cracked and dry lips as he walked up to a rest stop. It was a small cracked brick building with moss lightly covering some of the bricks and weaving between the cracks, paired with a falling apart shingle roof, a small part juts in creating a small shelter on the side closest to the dirt path. Inside this jut are two vending machines and a water fountain between them. Tord smiled slightly at the sight of the water fountain. He pressed the button on the side of the fountain and started taking huge gulps of water. Next he opened his duffle and pulled out the empty bottles and filled them up. After his drink and refill he walked around the small brick structure, finding nothing but a trashcan and charging port he returned to the vending machines. Tord narrowed his eyes at them, unable to buy anything from the machines. Tord shuffled over to the machines, he took off his ripped sweater and wrapped it around his robotic hand, as to not get shards in the joints, and punched through different parts of the glass a few times. He took his sweater off his hand then dusted off some shards before putting it back on. He unzipped the duffle and started tossing chips in his bag, carefully avoiding the now jagged glass of the vending machine. When he was satisfied with the loot he closed the bag keeping one of the bag of chips out. Tord carefully picked up a few pieces of glass and put them in his pocket, picking up the rest with the corner off his sweater, as to not leave prints, before tossing them in a nearby garbage can. Then opened the bag of chips and quickly ate them. As he finished the bag he dropped the bag in the trash before he continued walking.

_

"Ugh." Tord groaned as he sat under a shady tree for a break, he pulled out some water and another bag of chips. As he ate and drank he thought about why he was kicked out of his own army, as Tord remembered he started to get angry, it all started because of his old roommates. They should of stayed out of his way, why oh why didn't they stay out longer. Tord wanted revenge, but how? He calmed down a bit and started brain storming idea's on how to take some action. He took another swig of his water as a thought popped into his head, what if he didn't? He was in a pretty sorry state right now, not really in a good position to fuck up their lives again, nor did he really want too. He had already destroyed their house and had literally backfired and blown up in his face once before. Was it wise to try again?

The Norwegian crunched on a chip as he thought out all the possible out comes if he did try to get his revenge. As the man who had led him to the control of his army had said, 'If your enemies are good enough they will find a way through your plan, if you don't fix it first.' Tord sat there for about an hour thinking of everything that might happen. Before long it started to get dark once more. He put his trash back in his duffel and continued to think as he walked. No scheme had seemed worth his little resources or minimal effort. So what about getting their help instead? But its not like he knew their whereabouts anyways, and even if he did they probably wouldn't help him. Hell, they might even try to kill him if he showed up, if Tord was them and he showed up he probably wouldn't hesitate long to shoot either. Why would they help him? They have no reason to.

Tord's face dropped slightly and his pace slowed from a light jog to a leisurely stroll. He felt kind of bad for what he did. They were his friends at one point, and it wasnt like they didn't go on fun adventures together. Maybe he did miss them a little bit. Tord looked up at the sky, the moon looked bigger when it wasnt hiding behind clouds. He grabbed his phone from his duffle bag and checked its battery percentage, it was pretty low he needed an outlet soon. He turned it off completely and put it back in his duffel. A small path light appeared in the distance and Tord started to walk towards it. 

_

When he finally got up to where the path light was, he found a rest spot it was the similar as the other one Tord stopped at previously except it was better taken care off. It looked slightly newer because there was less moss growing on the brick walls of it. Tord explored the spot looking for an outlet, luckily there was one on the back side of the structure embedded in the brick like the previous one. He dug out his charger and plugged in his phone. He sat down next to the outlet, setting his phone down on his lap.

He decided to use this time to think some more, what else could he do? Tord closed his eyes and leaned his head back on the brick wall. He wondered if they were still even living in London. What if they moved far away, across the seas? He hadn't even gotten the chance to apologise to them yet, he was starting to feel moderately bad about that. He looked down at his phone it was now at a hundred percent, he unplugs his phone and charger and throws it back into his duffle.


	2. An old Enemy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tord is found wandering the park and passes out a few times.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song for this chapter is Why can't we be friends By: War. I actually have a full playlist for every song used on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8AZbGPyCLWh0u7_8s6vIdN7Siq3Kzl9K be careful though to only listen to one song per chapter, eventually there will be spoilers, as songs for unpublished chapters are on there as well.

### An Old enemy 

Tord looked down at his phone it was now at a hundred percent, he unplugs his phone and it's charger then throws them back into his duffle. Just as he was about to go back to roaming the park a familiar voice called out to him.  
"Tord?" The voice questioned, Tord whipped around to see one of his old roommates,  
"Matt!" Tord exclaimed, jogging over to him with his duffle bouncing of his back as he did so. Halfway to Matt his legs gave out causing him to collapse. Making him land on the hard gravel path face first.

_

When he opened his eyes, Tord was no longer face first in gravel at the park, even if though there was still tiny rock indents on his face, he found himself in laying on quite the opposite actually he was laying face down on a red couch in a building as far as he could tell. His duffle was across the room in a corner behind a TV. He was in a strange building that he'd never seen before, well the inside of at least.   
"Where, where am I?" Tord called out to an empty room. He listened carefully for a response. He heard hushed bickering coming from the next room. He couldn't make out any words just tones. Someone sounded cheerful the sound bouncing up and down in pitch though staying fairly high, another sounded angry and slightly drunk as the tone slurred in strength every few words, the third and final voice sounded firm and caring but concerned, and never wavering unlike the others.

The door of the room where the bickering people were opened, slamming into the wall, someone was audibly displeased at such harshness making an annoyed 'tsk' sound, Tord gulped. It wasn't anyone who wanted to see him, except maybe one, but Matt was never one dislike many people. A skinny man, Tom, shortest of them all at 5'6, in a blue hoodie and grey jeans was on the far right his light brown hair brushed to the left, and shaved on the sides, the middle unshaven bit led up to four pointed small main spikes as well as a few smaller points, he was glaring bullets through Tord, though strangely he was born with out the whites of his eyes, making them completely black, his glare caused fear none the less. In the middle was a round, usually friendly looking man, Edd, ranking third height wise at 5'7 and a half, wearing a green sweater and beige jeans, his hair had two small poofy parts near the back and the rest was flat, with his bangs rolling over his forehead, the sides of his hair were cut relatively close to his head but retained some visual fluffyness. He had a blank expression that was closer to concern to why Tord was there then anything else, still it was clear he wasn't welcomed like he once was. Finally Matt, he had a green jacket on over a purple hoodie and regular blue jeans, he was the tallest clocking in around 6'1, and was built like a twig, his bright orange hair was barely buzzed on the sides, the middle swooped forward into three spikes,he looked happy to see that Tord was awake, more then angry at him for existing still.

Tom was about to rip into Tord when Edd put up a hand to silence him.  
"Why are you here, Tord." Edd said sternly. He made eye contact with Tord as he spoke, crossing his arms and staring him down. Tord sat up, his sweater cockeyed showing the white shirt underneath. He hunched over a bit resting his arms on his legs and letting his hands dangle. He looked up and tried to make eye contact with Edd but couldn't, he still felt really shitty, the feeling had been slowly getting worse but was now tenfold that they were now standing in front of him.  
"I don't know," he answered, "last thing I remember is walking towards Matt before I woke up here." Tord looked up at them. He sighed exasperated rubbing his eyes before adding,  
"Look, I know you guys don't like me or trust me anymore and I understand." He paused letting his hands drop again, before looking Edd dead in the eyes,  
"I just want to say I'm sorry, I know it doesn't fix anything, and I don't expect you to forgive me. I'm really sorry about the house."  
He turned to look Matt in the eyes, his hands moving as he talked, "I'm sorry about hitting you," Tord shifted to make eye contact with Tom  
"And I'm especially sorry about what I did to you Tom, for hurting you and putting you in danger the most. I'll get out of your hair and you won't have to see me again"

Tord stood up his legs wobbled like jelly, then he imidetly fell on the hardwood floor in front of the red sofa, he landed once more on his face, hissing in pain as he does so.   
"Shit..." Tord weakly mumbles, he realized how weak he had become living off of chips and other various junk food. Matt rushes over to help Tord, whilst Tom and Edd stay relitvily still, Edd only moving forward slightly on reflex before he stopped himself physically restraining himself by crossing his arms tighter. "Tord!" Matt cried out,   
"Are you ok? Are you hurt?" Tom walks over to Matt and holds him back slightly.   
"What are you trying to pull here Tord." Tom asks in more of a demanding tone then questioning one, as he grabs Tord by the collar and sticking a finger in front of his face. Tord stays still his head tilted back facing the celling, his breathing sounding slow and laboured.  
"Answer me." Tom demands shaking Tord slightly. Matt looks up at Tom then down at an unconscious Tord. "Tom, Tord isn't awake." Matt whimpered, Edd walks over and looks down at the unconscious Norwegian, in a low voice he says,  
"This is the second time he passed out like this, I think we should take him to a hospital." 

_

"Ugh." Tord groans, leaning up on a strange bed. The first thing he notices before opening his eyes is the entire room smelling like bleach and similar cleaning products. When Tord does opens his eyes, he also notices that he is no longer in the apartment but a hospital room. The third thing he notices is how his old roommates are waiting around the room, Tom is leaning on a wall in the corner of the room with his arms crossed and eyes closed. Matt is in the small bathroom admiring himself in its mirror, and finally Edd is slightly out the door talking to what he assumes is a doctor or a nurse.

"What's happening?" Tord questions to the room, holding his head with one hand and resting his weight on the other. Tom opens his eyes to look at who spoke before closing them again and shifting his feet , Matt walks into the room and sits down in one of the shitty hospital chairs that moves at a slight breeze, and Edd motions to the doctor to come in the room before sitting next to Matt. Tord sits up higher and watches the doctor walk next to his bed. The doctor looks down at the chart in his hands as he speaks.  
"Lets see here," he peers at the chart shifting it to try to read it better, he lifts up his glasses and continues. "It seems that you're suffering from malnutrition, sir." Tord clicks his tounge against the roof of his mouth, that's not what he wanted to hear.

The doctor looks at Tord before adding, "You're not eating right, you need a more balanced diet, the tests we did show you're missing about a months worth of proper intake. You'll have to take some medication for a while to boost your levels back up." Tord looks down at his bed sheets and pickes at them, he can see the matrice through it. He shifts, how was he going to pay for this all? He puts a hole in the sheet with a finger nail,  
"How much do I owe you?" The doctor looks down at the chart and sighs,  
"It seems that you don't owe anything, your last," The doctor clears his throat and tucks a pen into the clip board, "'Job' has covered everything for you." The doctor nods at himself and mutters something about grabbing Tord's prescriptions and walks out of the room.

Said Norwegian flops onto his back and rubs his eyes, careful to not touch his IV drip which was leaving a metallic taste in his mouth. He could already tell he wasn't going to like his next conversation.


	3. The Rising Suspicion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tord wakes up in a hospital.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song for this chapter is Do I want to know? By: The artic Monkeys.

###  The Rising Suspicion 

Tom pushes himself off the wall, then walks to lean on the wall next to Edd. Tord turns onto his left side to look at his old friends and roommates.  
"Thanks..." Tord mutters towards them, "You guys didn't have to take me here." Tom scoffs and glares at Tord, "Well we're not you, we do have compassion for other people." Tord looks away, a hint of hurt on his face. He opened his mouth to rebuttal but the doctor walked back into the room. The doctor dropped a bag of various pills next to Tord and smiled,  
"A nurse will come by later to explain to you when and what pills to take and their respective doses," The doctor looked at everyone and scribbled something on the chart before speaking again, "there's one other thing we should discus, before we can send you on your way, do you have any roomates or people you live with?" Tord sakes his head no, the doctor sighs and turns towards the others in the room, "Well then, would you lot mind taking care of him?" He asks them, Matt stands up with figurative stars in his eyes and a wide smile plastered on his face, in a bubbly tone he responds,  
"Sure! We can take care of him, and take turns and stuff!" Matt bounces up and down like an ecstatic child, the doctor chuckles and nods. 

_

Tord sat in the back seat of a green Honda, probably years old by now, judging by the quality of the polyester seat. Tord looked up from the car's floor and could see the tension in the air, hanging over him like a thick winter fog. Matt was seated to the right of Tord rambling on and on about things he found interesting waving his hands around as he spoke. Edd was driving eyes focused on the road, as he drove carefully back to the apartment complex. Tom was sitting in front of Tord so he couldn't see much but he could tell Tom's arms were crossed. Tord stared out the window watching the cityscape go by.

The car had finally stopped, the trio and Tord started to head inside, Tord looked across the street from the complex and there was a pub and a couple of stores. He sighed and followed the trio inside, putting his hands into his pockets.

Tord stood as stiff as a board when he was back in the apartment, now knowing it was Edds. When he looked around it was very obvious it was his, pictures of Matt, Tom, himself and his cat were hanging on walls and placed on shelves. Cat toys adorned the floor and one or two were in a black cat bed pushed into a corner of the room. There was a kitchen to the right of the living room area with a small dining room attached to it. Directly across from the front door was another door leading to what Tord assumed was Edd's bedroom.

Tom sat down on one of the two red arm chairs, and Matt flopped onto the same red couch Tord had woken up in earlier that same day. Edd closed the door and locked it, Matt sat up and moved to the end of the couch that was the furthest from Tom. Edd picked up the remaining matching arm chair and placed it so it was facing Tom and the intire couch, before sitting on the empty end of the couch. He looks at Tord, "Sit." He says, gesturing to the arm chair with one arm crossed.

Tord awkwardly shuffles over and sits down. He sits up as straight as he can, which isn't very straight and puts his hands on his lap timidly. He looks up not really returning Edd's eye contact but still looking at him. Tord can feel them staring at him even if he's only looking at Edd.  
"So," Edd starts, crossing his arms properly, this is it. Tord thinks, this is the conversation I've been dreading. "Why are you back." Tord is taken aback slightly. That's not what he was expecting, he was imagining much worse version of that question.

Wait why am I here? Tord questioned himself, he wasn't really going to try to find them. The only reason was Matt brought him back, other wise he would've just let them live in peace. He apologized to them already so he could've just left.   
"I don't know," Tord responds honestly, rubbing the back of his neck with his robotic arm. "I wasn't really planning on coming back, I mean, I really wanted to apologize don't get me wrong. But I didn't even know if you guys were still in London, let alone England. And I didn't want to disrupt you guys again just to stop feeling guilty. Sorry again."

Tord leans back in the chair and starts messing with the corner of his sweater. Edd looks over Tord, with one eyebrow raised in judging suspicion, he didn't seem to be lying but Edd couldn't tell. He's lied to them all before, Edd wasn't going to believe him just because he said a couple of sorrys. Edd stared at Tord and when he looked up made eye contact with him, Tord stared at him back not with any hatred or anything sinister, just a normal look of curiosity. "So, um." Tord whispered, looking away from Edd then back. "Is there anything else you guys wanted to ask?"

Tom shifted in the arm chair he was sitting in, he cleared his throat gaining Tord attention, "How long are you going to stick around?" Tom asks impatiently, Tord squints one eye as he tries to remember something,  
"How ever long the doctor said you guys have to put up with me, I would've left sooner. Hell even today, but sense he wanted progress reports and to check in, you're kind of stuck with me, sorry." Tom clicks his tounge off the roof of his mouth that's a month of Tord at least, maybe even more. This was going to be an interesting experience of a month, that was something everyone knew, even Matt. Good or bad that was the question everyone was thinking as they continued the conversation into an awkward territory.


	4. First Shift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone catches up a bit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapters song is This Year by The Mountain Goats.

### First Shift 

Matt moves closer to Edd, then pipes up with a questioning undertone in his overall upbeat tone,  
"So Tord, why did the doctor say you have malnutrition?" Tord looks over at Matt who is sitting on the edge of the couch, looking eager to listen to Tord's tale. Tord sighs lightly and turns his body towards Matt,   
"Well, eating nothing but snacks from park vending machines does that to you, it seems." Tord chuckles dryly, rubbing his robotic joints of the hand that punched the vending machine.

Matt turns his head to the side at Tord's response, he opens his mouth but is interrupted by Edd's phone going off and his own. They both wip out their phones, and they both mutter excuse me's respectively before heading to other rooms, Edd goes to the kitchen and Matt just outside the apartment door. Leaving Tom and Tord sitting in the living room. Tord changes how he's sitting to face Tom once more. Tom watches Edd pace around the kitchen from his arm chair, when Tom realizes Tord is watching him, he shoots him a sideways glare.

Tord snaps away from Tom, becoming very interested in the material of the chair. Matt walks in soon followed by Edd. Edd pinching the bridge of his nose annoyed, quickly texts on his phone.  
"Ugh," He groans, "some intern messed up royally at the studio. They deleted half of the posters for the next season's drop, I have to go in to try to recover the files." Edd walks down the hallway to Tords left. Matt nods and adds in a peachy tone,  
"I have to go in too, they're short a few members of the makeup crew." Matt puts his phone away and darts out of Edd's apartment, returning with a big makeup case and a ID tag. Edd returns as well now wearing a button up, jeans and had his own ID tag.

"Tom, take Tord to your apartment. Don't forget his bag, we'll be back after work," Edd talks in a parentive voice, he pauses before continuing, "don't kill each other. Please. Oh and lock up." With that Edd and Matt are gone. Tom looks at Tord, whom shrinks under his gaze. Tom scoffs at Tord,  
"Hurry up and grab your bag," Tord moves to where his bag was still in the corner from the morning, then moves the arm chair he was sitting in back beside the left of the couch.

Tom locks Edd's apartment, then moves down the hall a little and unlocks a door. The layout of Tom's apartment is the same as Edd's, all the base of the rooms the same just flipped as if mirrored. Tom drops his keys in a bowl on a small wooden table. The overall colours of Tom's apartment were dark, dark blues and blacks. The opposite of Edds more bright coloured apartment, greens and whites.

Tom's apartment was relively clean, there was the occasional pile of something, but it wasn't a sty. Tom walked over to his couch and purposely fell on it. He took off his blue sweater, he balled it up and put it behind his head before kicking off his shoes with his heel. He looked over at Tord, whom stood near the door clutching his duffel nervously.

Tom patted the floor next to the couch, Tom's checkered bracelet falling down his wrist slightly as he did so. Tord sat on the floor, now losely clutching his duffel, looking up slightly at Tom.   
"So," Tom starts, looking Tord over a little. "we can't kill each other." Tom lets his each of his arms hang over a side of the couch, he props one leg up and the other lays across his thigh. He closes his eyes, then leans his head back on the armrest of the couch.

"Yep," Tord pops the p in yep a little, nervously fidgeting with the cuff of his sweater he asks, "what's the studio?" Tom turns his head towards Tord, he gives him a puzzled look.  
"We drove by it on the way here, it's a movie studio. We all kind of work there. Edd is in graphics and special effects, and that kind of design stuff, Matt works make-up and the catering service I work at delivers there." 

Tord mouths an 'oh'. He stares down at Tom's carpet, it looks like a very nice carpet. "What have you been doing?" Tom asks rolling over onto his side, Tord head snaps up but he quickly looks to the side.   
"Ah, well, you know, uh stuff." Tom glares at Tord and furrows his eyebrows. He flicks him in the forehead,   
"Ow..." Tord mutters,  
"Stop being suspicious and just answer." Tom says, holding his head up with his hand. Tord sighs,  
"I guess you could say I was enjoying nature," Tom holds his hand in front of Tord's forehead, in an about to flick again gesture. "Okay, okay." Tord puts his hands up in surrender, audible gear sounds and clicks coming from his right arm. "I was living in a park, for a few. Months." Tord trails off when he gets to how long he was living there. It's not really something to brag about.

"What?" Tom sits up and looks at Tord. He did look ratty, but months? "How many?" Tom questions, taking on Edd's motherly role for the moment. No matter how much he hated Tord no one should be living in a park for that long, or at all for that matter.   
"Uh, one and a half I think." Tom gets up and walks around Tord, inspecting him for scratches or marks. Nothing looked fresh, besides a small cut on his palm. But that was scabbed over. 

Tom let out a sigh of relief, as he sat back down on his couch. He runs his hand through his hair, it immediately spiking back up slightly when his hand leaves it.   
"Why were you in the park?" Tom asks in a wiry tone still suspicious, despite just unnecessarily looking over Tord. They did just come from the hospital after all.   
"Can I sit on the couch first?" Tord looks up at Tom, he nods and Tord akwardly sits on the other end of the couch. They turn to face each other. Tord closes his eyes and begins in a soft tone,  
"Well..."


	5. Fallen Soldier

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tord tells Tom a bit of what happened in the army.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, thank you to everyone that gave kudos it means a lot to me. Secondly the song for this chapter is Higher by: The Score.

### Fallen Soldier

"Well... I guess when it started was right after the robot thing." Tord states squeezing his already shut eyes tighter, as he tells Tom how he'd ended up in the park.

_Tord cluches his right arm close to his chest, holding it with his left. Tord was watching the people below the hill he had crashed on top of, the very same people who he had just almost killed. Burning debrie falling everywhere around him. He looks down at his arm, it wasn't going to recover from this. A car does a hard left turn at the bottom of the hill its tires screeching as it did so, he turns his head towards the noise. It was some of Tord's lackeys._

__

_They hop out of the car with some medical equipment and walk over to Tord slowly. Tord looks around his vision blurry in one eye, and grabs a human sized robotic arm. The first lackey crouchs next to him and starts patching up Tord.  
"The higher ups are not going to like your results," He says half heartedly to Tord, tugging on his sweater. Tord stares into the dirt, taking off his sweater and shirt so the lackey could patch him up better.  
"I know, I know," Tord sighs, "it doesn't look good does it?" He mutters and points at his arm, the lackey shakes his head.  
"Your eye doesn't look to hot either, can you see out of it?" Tord shrugs,  
"Its getting more blurry and its going darker." The lackey lets out a concerned hum and wraps Tord's neck in bandages._

__

__

__

_Tord pushes the robotic arm towards the lackey, "Sence my arm is going to get amputated anyway, think you can use this as a prosthetic?" The lackey picks up the arm and nods setting it to the side.  
"Whats your name anyways?" The lackey stops and looks Tord in the eyes extending a hand he says,  
"Adam, sir." Tord shakes Adam's hand with his good arm, and chortals,  
"I would say who I am, but you should already know." Adam nods vigorously,  
"Yes, Red leader, sir." Adam silently goes back to work on Tord._

____

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_

____

__

____

_Tord groans, he had just been called down to the main commander's office. He was sure to get ripped a new one from them, and on top of that his arm was flairing up again. Damned thing would ache every time he'd either, sleep on it wrong or went near magnets. He steps out of his quarters and bumps into Adam,  
"Hey," He says to Tord, in response Tord mutters,  
"Hi." Adam turns and starts walking in the same direction as him.  
"Heard your getting chewed out about everything you do now."  
"How did you?" Adam shrugged,  
"It's all over the base, well the rumor is anyways." Tord sighed._

_____ _

__

_____ _

_"Fuck," Adam looked at Tord with wide eyes, Tord shrugged it off, "I have some freedom you know." Adam shook his head,  
"I know, just not used to being. You know, being friends with a higher up." Tord chuckled,  
"I'm barely up the chain now, and even that won't last long it seems," Adam pats Tord's shoulder and gives him an encouraging smile,  
"Hey man, relax a little. They can't do anything to bad to you it's not like they made the army or anything."  
"It's theirs now, just because I made one mistake, one." Tord grits his teeth and clenched his fists. Tord stops in front of a big oak door,  
"They want to talk to me again, see you later." Adam catches Tord's shoulder before he can open the door,  
"Don't worry to much about it," he lets Tord's shoulder go, "see you later man." And with that Adam makes his leave down the hallway._

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__

______ _ _

_Tord takes in a gulp of air to try to calm down. The big oak doors squeak as he pushes them open, the room that the door led into was dark with a few lights illuminating things. Tord's shoes are one of the only noises in the room besides his own breathing. He slowly walks to the centre of the room, a light hangs over him swinging slightly making the room partially creepier. A group of eyes open in the darkness the people they belong to hidden in the shadows._

_______ _ _ _

__

_______ _ _ _

_Tord stiffened when one of the council members hummed in annoyance,  
"Do you know why we called you in here Red?" Tord folded his hands behind his back and tried to stand up as straight as possible.  
"No, no I don't, sir." One of the sets of eyes give him a squinty glare. Tord hears a creak of wood as the eyes move forward._

________ _ _ _ _

__

________ _ _ _ _

_The eyes look amongst themselves before the head of the council continued._

_________ _ _ _ _ _

__

_________ _ _ _ _ _

_"Your mistakes." He states, Tord looks into the darkness taken aback slightly,  
"Pardon sir?"  
"Your mistakes, Red," the head of the council restated with malice in his voice, "you have had an increasing number of mistakes, blunders and screw ups increasing in size sense your last big mission, which was over a year ago!" A loud thump of a fist hitting an oak table rings throughout the room, "Don't think we didn't see your little plan or your other antics for the past three or so months." Tord stands his ground staring into the dark as the head of the council increases his voice more as he starts to ream Tord._

__________ _ _ _ _ _ _

__

__________ _ _ _ _ _ _

_"So as punishment the council has collectively decided that, you'll be kicked out of the army. For now. We will contact you with a deal to return, if, or when you are needed. Go pack your basics then leave immediately. Guard make sure he does what he's told." A guard emerges from the darkness and grabs Tord dragging him back to his room._

___________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__

___________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_The guard stands in the corner of his room and tosses a green duffle bag at Tord. Adam walks by and stops abruptly and looks in at him. "Tord?"_

___________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_

___________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

"Tord?" Tom asks, said Norwegian looks up from where he was apparently staring. "You ok? You stopped talking once you got to the getting yelled at part." Tord clears his throat weakly before muttering,  
"Yeah." Tom looks at him suspiciously and nods,  
"Ok then," Tom sighs "follow me."

___________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


	6. Baby steps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tord and Tom talk a bit more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for helping this fic break 100 hits and all the kudos'. It makes me happy knowing people are enjoying this fic. This chapter's song is Nothing Lasts by: Bedroom. If you'd rather not search up the song every time you might prefer the playlist of all the songs used so far plus one's from unpublished chapters, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8AZbGPyCLWh0u7_8s6vIdN7Siq3Kzl9K .

###  Baby Steps 

### 

Tom gestured for Tord to follow him before starting to walk away. Tord scrambled off the couch to follow Tom, they headed into the other room Tord still clutching his duffle close to his chest. They entred Tom's kitchen and Tom told Tord to sit whilst pointing at a kitchen chair. Tord obliged and Tom sat across from him.

"So you'll have to take your medicine soon, so what do you want to eat with it?" Tord leaned back, what did he want? The Red Army wasn't known for its food, it was a step above slop, same thickness plus the same ugly grey colour, but you had less food poisoning when you ate it.   
"Honestly," Tord responded, "just a standard breakfast would be nice." Tom nodded and started grabbing ingredients and utensils to make a good old breakfast.

"Do you want to help?" Tom asks over his shoulder. Tord nods, and walks over to the kitchen counter.   
"Pass me the eggs please." Tom gestured over his shoulder in the direction of the eggs. Tord wattled over to them and passed them to Tom.   
"So, why did you want a normal breakfast out of anything?" Tom questioned Tord,  
"Oh well I guess it's just something I haven't had in long time, and it's simple I guess." Tord shrugged and grabbed some bacon and placed it beside Tom. Tord messed with his sweater cuff and shifted from foot to foot as Tom continued to cook.   
"Hey Tom?" Tord rubbed the back of his neck with his robot arm, Tom hummed in response. "What exactly do you do? Like catering wise." Tom tossed away a few bits of garbage in a small bin and started cooking some bacon as he responded,  
"Well I do some basic preparation work and delivery." 

Tord nodded and asked another question, "Whats the studio like anyway?" Tom gave Tord a sideways glance and answered with another question, "Why do you keep asking so many questions?" He snapped, Tord looked down and folded in on himself a little,  
"Sorry." Tord looked a little like a kicked puppy.

Regaining his composure, Tom sighed,   
"Fine," Tom pulled out a few plates from the cupboard beside him, and Tord brightened up a bit, "it's like a normal movie studio I suppose. There's a couple of buildings, all of which I deliver to. There's a whole bunch of people, but I guess that's pretty much what you'd expect." 

Tom plated the food and they sat down to eat. Tord took a bite and started wolfing it down, the eggs were so fluffy and the bacon just the perfect amount of crispy. "This is really good!" Tord said ecstaticly between bites. Tom muttered a thanks as he ate, and watched Tord excitedly eat. 

Tord finished last surprisingly and followed Tom to the sink,  
"Do you want to help again or?" Tord nodded vigorously and started grabbing dishes,  
"Wait what about your arm?" Tom points to Tords robotic arm,  
"Eh, it has a water proof coating." Tord states as he turns on the sink and rolls up his sleeves, Tom shrugs and grabs a dish towel. Tord grabs the soap and puts way to much into the sink Tom rolls his eyes slightly the only indication of him doing so is his eyebrows and eyelids. _Whatever using too much soap was an accident_ Tom thinks to himself, as Tord begins washing a plate and flings a few soapy bubbles at Tom. In response Tom just raises an eyebrow at him and just assumes it's another accident. 

Then once Tord starts washing a pan and another wave of bubbles are flung in Tom's direction does he realizes that, Tord is doing this on purpose. Tom flicks a few of the bubbles from the corner of the sink at Tord as a rebuttal. Tord sets down the clean pan on the counter but slaps some more bubbles at Tom, in retaliation Tom gives Tord a little smirk and scoops some bubbles up in his hands, then jolts his hands at Tord causing the bubbles to fly onto the front of Tord's sweater and stick. 

Tord gives Tom a playful glare and simply states "Its on." Before hitting the mountain of bubbles in such a way that sends a tsunami of bubbles at Tom, getting water and bubbles all over the front of his hoodie too. The two playfully slap bubbles at each other, getting soapy water all over the counter top, the floor, and themselves. Consequently making more of a mess rather than cleaning up. 

Tord hit the bubbles creating a monsoon, making Tom's hair wet flattening his spiky hair into looking more like a palm tree's leaves, soapy water ran down his head getting his face and sweater wet and soapy. In turn Tom doused Tord with a bubbley wave, Tords hair got hit turning his main two spikes into smaller points, a few smaller bubbles ran down his face onto his sweater. 

Tord started to smile as he splashed Tom once more, Tom's smirk widened as he thought of a wave to end all waves. He slammed his hand into the middle of the sink, sending his wave air born drenching both Tord as well as himself. Tord laughed at the sight of Tom, whose hair was flat and stuck to his face. They both looked clearly soaked, their sweaters sticking to themselves, getting their shirts wet too. Tom used the water in his hair to slick it back,  
"We should probably clean up for real now." Tord chuckled and nodded, grabbing a plate. 

_

Tom sighed contently and tossed the last of the damp towels into a basket, wiping his hands on his dry change of clothes and dropping onto the couch. Tord curled up in the corner of the couch, enjoying the warmth of the spare of clothes Tom lent him, the fluffyness of the couch beneath him and the warm coffee in his hand. Tom turned on the telly, sat slouched and comfortably with his legs out stretched. 

A comfortable atmosphere hanged in the air as the two sat and watched the telly. The two sat quietly, Tord finished his coffee and sat it to the side, a little while after that Tom's phone went off.  
"It's from Edd,"


	7. An Average Breakfast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tord, Tom, Matt, and Edd, have breakfast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I, I'm simultaneously ecstatic that this fic broke 200 and surprised, especially one week after it hit a little over 100. Thank you guys for every kudos' and every hit, it means a lot to me. This chapter's song is Caravan Place - Aftermath.

### An Average Breakfast

“It's from Edd," Tom mutters, more to the room than Tord, "excuse me." Tom gets up and briskly walks towards his bedroom, leaving Tord alone in the living room. Tord raises a questioning eyebrow as he watches Tom leave, but turns to face forward to continue watching the telly. 

After a few minutes of Tord sitting awkwardly on Tom's couch by himself, Tom returns. Before Tord could ask what Edd wanted, Tom answered that for him,  
"Apparently they both won't be off 'till ten-ish. So you're sleeping here tonight," Tom paused to look at Tord who just nodded, "I guess breakfast will be at Edd's, from what I could understand." Tord gave a small nodd and they both went back to watching a shity dramatic comedy. 

_

Tord pulled the blanket closer to his chest as he shifted onto his side, being careful to not roll off the couch. He let out a small sigh, it felt good to not sleep against a tree or on the ground again. Even if he was starting to get a little crick in his neck from the armrest. He moved so that he could lay down a bit more flush with the couch, it was an old looking couch, tattered in some places but it was comfy nonetheless. This day had felt so long he was ready to go to bed, Tord smiled slightly happy to get one of the best sleeps he would of had in a while. 

_

Tord jolted awake to the sound of Tom's bathroom door slamming shut, and who he assumed was Tom, throwing up. Tord sat up fully to look at the now closed door, the blanket he was tangled in falling down to his waist. He could hear a groan before a toilet flushed and a sink being turned on. There was some splashing sounds, something else being gargled and then spat out. Tom emerged from the bathroom, he walked right passed Tord ignoring his existence, his hand cupped around something. 

Tom walked into the kitchen then grabbed a glass filling it with water, Tord turned back around. He moved into one corner of the the couch making room for a grumpy looking Tom. He was pinching the bridge of his nose and scowling, muttering to himself about his raging headache. Tord sat quietly watching Tom grumble.  
"I gotta get rid of this hangover before breakfast." Tom groaned in annoyance as he rubbed his temple and leaned back on the couch, sliding down so that only his torso was on the couch which left his legs supporting themselves like he was sitting normally. 

Tom's phone beeped causing Tom to let out a small, pained groan. He pulled his phone from his jeans pocket, "Edd says breakfast is ready," Tom grumbled lowly, as he put his phone away and set down the glass, "follow me." Tord stood up quickly and ran his fingers through his hair, at an attempt to smooth it out some. Tom rolled his eyes at Tord before he walked back into the bathroom emerging with a hair brush and a container of gel,   
"Here." He tossed the hair products at Tord. 

Tord had a small smile on his face as Tom knocked on Edd's door, his hair felt a little bit better now. A smiling Edd opened the door and grabbed both boys by the arm, dragging them in the direction of his kitchen. He let them go in front of his small dining table, it was a wooden table with four chairs around it. There was a cut going though the middle of the table width wise where you could add an extension if you wanted to. Tom sat across from Matt and Tord took one of the end chairs, the farthest one from the the kitchen itself where Edd was, he was currently adding the finishing touches to the food, which happened to be blue berry pancakes and of course don't forget the syrup, with a side of bacon and fruit just to be healthy. 

Edd placed the food in front of every one respectively, before going back to the counter to grab drinks. Hungover Tom got coffee, Matt got orange juice, Tord got his tea then took his medication and Edd poured himself some Apple juice. The trio and Tord sat around having a lazy morning conversation, nothing very eventful until Matt asked,  
"I need someone to practice on, I have to get this new look down for the next shoot can one of you guys help me?" Edd and Tom looked at each other wearily, they both had played make up stand for Matt before, it wasn't something they particularly enjoyed doing. Besides Edd desperately needed a long nap at this point, and Tom well, with his hangover couldn't endure a makeover for long. 

Edd opened his mouth to say something to Matt but before he could, Tord interrupted him,  
"I could help you Matt." He offered, smiling and eager to help. In turn Matt offered him a smile back,  
"Thanks Tord!" Matt chirped cheerfully as he shoved a quarter of a pancake in his mouth. They all went back to eating and chatting comfortably, Matt told Tord to follow him back to his apartment once they were both finished with their breakfasts. 

Sense Tord was going to help Matt, Tom offered to help Edd with breakfast clean up. Tom pulled Tord over to the side while Matt and Edd were tossing out some trash. "Once you're done at Matt's you can come back to my place to sleep if you want. Or to just grab your stuff or whatever." Tom murmurs awkwardly as he shifts from foot to foot, moving his checkered bracelet down as far as it would go on his wrist. Tord raised his eyebrows in surprise at Tom, he was confused that Tom would want him to sleep at his place again.  
"Oh!" Tord replied, his surprise seeping over into his voice, "If you'll let me, sure." Tord smiled sheepishly, Tom nodded and walked over to where Edd was. Matt lightly skipped until he was at Tord's side.  
"Ready?" Matt beamed, Tord with a slight smile nodded and followed Matt as they left Edd's apartment.


	8. Glamorous Bonding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tord and Matt hangout for a bit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapters song is Walking on sunshine by Katrena and the waves. Thanks for all the kudos!

### Glamorous Bonding

Like his other two friends, Matt lived on the same floor. His apartment was across from Edd's. He unlocked the door and let Tord in first. Once again the layout of Matt's apartment was the same as Edds and Toms, except his was flipped. His bedroom was still across from the front door. The bathroom was on the right and the kitchen was to the left, and of course the living room was in front of them. 

Matt lead Tord to his sleek grey couch and sat him down, before he went into his bedroom. Tord was only waiting a couple of seconds before Matt came back with the same make-up case that Tord had seen him with the day before. Matt placed it on his coffee table, then laid it on it's side. 

Matt clicked open the case's metal clips and unlocked it, he grabbed a few things from it and staring applying some to Tord's face.   
"Why is it locked?" Tord asked while trying to stay as still as he could. Matt paused for a second to look at the case before going back to Tord.  
"It's just so the more expensive palettes and brushes don't get stolen." Matt replied, Tord mouthed a small 'oh' then went back to being quiet. Matt grabbed a hair tie, head band and a hair brush. He tied the longer back part of Tord's hair in a pony tail, then he brushed Tord's hair spikes flatter and pinned them back with the head band. 

Matt grabbed a few more brushes as Tord tried to think up something to talk about. He realized that he didn't know much about Matt, all Tord really remembered about him talking about was himself. Right now all he knew he sememed to at least have an interest in was make-up, so why not start with that.  
"Hey Matt?" Matt continued to work and just gave Tord a hum of acknowledgement to let him know he was listening.  
"When did you first get into make-up?" 

Matt's look of concentration softened into a look of fond remembrance, with a soft smile Matt answered, "Well, for a long time now I guess. It's one of the only things that made gorgeous me even better," Matt gave Tord a cheeky smile as he posed with his head resting on the back of his hands. Tord chuckled as Matt resumed, "but in all seriousness, it's just something I find really cool, you know? When done right it's like putting art right onto someone's skin and once it's gone, it's gone. Even if you try to recreate it using pictures it still won't be the same." 

Matt kept smiling as he put something else on Tord's skin. Tord mentally raised his eyebrows, he never really thought about beauty products, besides from his hair dye and gel. Matt and Tord sat in silence for a while, every once and a while Matt would ask Tord to close an eye, or tilt his head. 

_ 

Matt put down his supplies and moved back to admire his work, then he grinned as the transformation was complete. He handed Tord a hand mirror, Tord's jaw dropped slightly as he looked back at himself. Matt had made him into a zombie complete with a fake eye hanging out of its socket. Tord looked back to Matt with a look of amazement and wonder in his eye.   
"It, just, it looks really good Matt," Tord babbled, "are you sure you even had to practice?" Matt chuckled as he nodded,  
"Had to make sure it was down pat." He grabbed his phone off the table, "now let's have a photo shoot before we take it off." 

_ 

Tord waved goodbye to Matt, then he walked across the hall to Tom's door. He knocked and from the other side of the door Tom called,  
"It's open!" Tord opened the door to see Tom slouched over his couch. He had one arm thrown over the back of the couch just dangling, his torso is stretched out so that his head lines up with where the back of the couch stops, not counting his hair. Tom's left leg was outstretched and resting on the corner of his coffee table, an old newspaper under his foot. 

Tom patted the cushion next to him and Tord flopped down next to him. Tom turns his head slightly to glance at Tord,  
"Edd has the day off tommorow, so he'll be babysitting you for the day." Tom turned back towards the telly to continue watching some random show Tord didn't know. Two guys were in a pet shop, one guy was arguing that the parrot in a cage was dead, but the other guy kept denying him. 

"What the," Tord muttered in confusion, Tom looked at him then back at the show. Tom paused the show and began to explain what was happening, Tord laughed and started asking about the show. Tom pressed play, then Tord and him chatted comfortably throughout the rest of the episode's skits. 

_ 

Tord and Tom had watched three more episodes before they decided to stop for lunch. By the time it was almost one they had watched a season and a half.  
"Night." Tord said lying down on the couch, Tom responded with the same as he disappeared into his bedroom. 

Tord pulled the same blanket from last night and this morning up to his collar bone. He lays on his side facing the back of the couch, he adjusted the checkered pillow beneath his head. He pulls out his phone from his pocket and starts to scroll through bananstagram, he sees the pictures that he and Matt had taken. 

He likes the post and keeps scrolling, he stops once he sees a picture of some random guy with a hood and black mask on, tagging the side of a brick building with the red army symbol, an older,cruder version of the same tag was already on the wall in a darker red. Tord's happy smirk dropped into a scowl, angrily he clicked of his phone and put it on the coffee table. He goes back to facing the back of the couch, he forced his eyes shut and gripped the edge of the blanket, his knuckles pailing from the pressure.


	9. Shots Fired

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tord has an unpleasant dream, when he walks up he talks with Tom about it. Sort of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, Tord gets shot in this chapter. It’s not very graphic but still, thought I should just give a small warning. Thanks for all the kudos, it makes me happy so many people are enjoying this fic to some extent. This chapters song is Rama Lama(Bang Bang) By Róisín Murphy.

### Shots Fired

_Tord hissed in pain as he got hit in the face with a branch, but he kept running as fast and as quietly that he could. Another branch nicked his arm as he entered a clearing, there was a drop that led into an abandoned town. He looked down and jumped. Tord landed with a thump on the ground, a cloud of dirt puffed up from where he'd landed. As soon as his feet touched ground Tord took off running with his pistol in his hands. His armor was heavily damaged, he wouldn't win if he tried to fire at his attackers. He turned a corner around a decaying building, turning up more dirt as he skidded to turn the corner.  
"Shit," he cursed under his breath, he had turned into a dead end. Tord looked up at the buildings with urgency, there was a fire escape. It was old and rusted one hit would either break it or let the latter down, all he needed to was- , Tord whipped around at the shouting. His attackers had caught up to him, Tord armed his pistol and pointed at them. _

_He was out numbered, they pointed their guns at him. Tord's chest heaved as he growled at them, he was already out of breath from running from them. "I'm not going to surrender willingly." He narrowed his eyes at them. The bigger of the two laughed cruelly at Tord and took a step forward,  
"Just as I had hoped, Red." The guy took another step toward Tord, he felt his jaw lock and his nose scrunch up. Tord's grip tightened on his favorite pistol, his fingers cracked slightly as he did so. The guy took his final step forward as far as Tord was concerned, Tord aimed at the guys head,  
"One more step and I'll shoot you." Tord spat the warning, The guy chuckled darkly again,  
"Not if I do first," before Tord could even question what was said he felt a sharp pain surge though out his right arm._

Tord shot up from the couch into a fighting stance, he was breathing hard and was sweating. The gears in his arm clicked and groaned. Tord blinked a couple of times and his eyes darted around to see a startled Thomas, his normally black eye's were white and he was frozen in a protective self stance. Tord looked at him then down at his clenched fists, he realized where he was and what was happening and unclenched his fists. 

Tord looked at Tom apologetically, and rubbed the back of his neck with his still clicking arm. His other arm rubbing where he was shot on his right arm, The faint scar from the bullet barley visable,  
"Er, sorry. It was a refelx." Tom blinked a couple of times, his eyes turning back to normal as his arms lowered into being crossed.   
"A, a refelx to what. You were dead asleep a second ago." Tord laughed nervously and picked at the hem of his T-shirt with his left hand. Tord looked away from Tom to stare at a picture on a shelf in the corner of the room. "Tord." Tom spoke in a no bull shit tone, Tord dragged his gaze away from the picture of Tom, Edd and Matt hanging out at a fair to look at the present Tom. 

"From, a dream." Tord mumbled, loud enough for Tom to hear,  
"What kind of dream Tord." Tom pressed, staring at a slightly frazzled Tord. He sat back onto the couch and sighed,  
"It was a red army dream," Tom continued to stare at Tord, he groaned and rubbed his eyes, "where I got shot," Tom said nothing and just walked over and sat on the end of the couch,  
"Haven't you got shot dozens of times though?" Tord nodded,  
"Yeah I have, sence then, but that was my first time getting shot." Tord subconsciously started rubbing the scar again, Tom just watched him in a curious manner. "Can, can I see it? The scar I mean." Tord looked at Tom puzzled before he realized what he had been doing. "Uh sure, if you want to. Switch places with me first though." 

Once they did that, Tord rolled up his right sleeve so that it looked like a sleeveless shirt on that side. Tom's eyes widened at all the scrapes and scratches on Tord's arm alone. He reaches out to touch him but stops before he touches him.  
"Where is it?" Tom looks up at him, Tord points to an older looking scar that's lighter then the shrapnel scars, but still prominent. It's right above where Tord's robot arm is connected to his body. 

Tom reaches out and grazed Tord's arm where the scar is, Tord just sits there patently watching Tom. He lightly touches some of the shrapnel scars next, The texture was smooth but still bumpy.   
"How far does this go?" Tom gestured to the giant scar, Tord stops to think for a second before he takes his shirt off.  
"From here," he points to where the scar stops at his hair line, "to here." he points to mid way down his thigh. "But by then it's just a few odd small little scrapes that didn't heal properly, and here," he motions to where the scar stopped about in the middle of his torso, "to there." Tord turned so Tom could look at his back, it stopped a little over halfway with a few odd scrapes that reached over to his left. 

Tom pulled his hand away from Tord as he turned back to face Tom again, he looked up at him with concern,  
"You, you barely survived. How?" Tord laughed and Tom backed his hand up a little more,  
"It takes a lot more then a big ass explosion, flying metal and a fall to kill me." He bragged, 

Tord smiled at a puzzled Tom, in response Tom shook his head in disbelief,  
"Are you unkillable or something." Tord shrugged, "Eh, maybe." Tom chuckled and gave Tord a small smirk and hummed, as he ghosted over Tord's scaring on the side of his shoulder,  
"Maybe," Tom stood up as he cleared his throat, "anyways, we should get some breakfast and you should take your meds. Then drop you at Edd's, before I can go to work." Tord hummed in agreement and got up and followed Tom into the kitchen, as he slipped his shirt back on over his head.


	10. Two bros being awkward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tom has to go to work, so it’s Edd’s turn to essentially babysit Tord.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t know what to say, thank you all so much for breaking 400 hits. Every hit and kudos means so much to me. With that being said, this chapters song is Rockin the suburbs by Ben Folds.

### Two Bros Being Awkward

##### Plus a cat

### 

Tord waved bye to Tom, he watched Tom disappear around the corner of the hall, most likely off to the elevators. He took a deep breath then knocked on Edd's door, Edd opened it with Ringo in his arms. Ringo was a grey tabby with black stripes down her back and a black underbelly, her whiskers where mostly white with one or two odd black ones. 

"Hey Tord," Edd greeted, Ringo mewed a hello at Tord,  
"Hey Edd, Hey Ringo." Edd moved aside so Tord could get into the flat. He walked Tord over to the couch and they both sat down, Ringo walked out of Edd's arms and over to Tord. Edd and Tord watched as she started sniffing Tord's arm, he out stretched his arm so she could gauge which arm was better. 

Ringo rubbed her face on his arm, then she walked across Tord's thighs and laid down in his left arm. Rubbing her face on Tord's right arm at the joint where it connected to his body. Tord's arm made a few odd clicking noises and popped off with a hiss, Ringo watched it fall beside her. Edd jumped back a little startled, Tord just sighed and reached around Ringo to grab it. He picked it up by the elbow, then reattached it to himself, it made a louder click when it locked back into place. Ringo pawed at his metal arm as if she was testing it, she turned around in Tord's arm, resting her head on Tord's left arm before she started purring. 

Edd looked up from Ringo, to stare at Tord, "I, uh, I didn't realize that your arm could do, that." Edd gestured at the arm in question. Tord shrugged,  
"It's mostly for repairing it and stuff." Edd moved closer to Tord to get a better look at his arm, Edd let out an intrigued hum as he looked at Tord's arm. He used his own hands and turned it over to look at both sides. 

Satisfied with his minimal once over, Edd moved back to the other side of the couch giving Tord some space. Tord began petting Ringo with his free arm, she continued to purr as he did so. He focused on Ringo, feeling awkward around Edd. They weren't on necessarily bad terms, but they weren't all buddy, buddy like they used to be. At least Ringo was okay with him. 

He pulled his left arm out from under Ringo, so she was just sitting in his lap. Tord wiggled some of his fingers in front of her face attempting to play with her. Ringo reached up and batted at one of his fingers. Tord looked around to see if any cat toys were near him, there was a fake grey mouse on the floor attached to a pink string. 

Tord leaned over the edge of the couch careful to not move Ringo, he grabbed the string and dangled the mouse in front of her face. She batted at the mouse with more energy then his fingers, Ringo grabbed the bouncing mouse with her claws and pulled it to her face, she sniffed it then chomped down on the toy. 

She ripped it from Tord's hand as she flipped onto her back, Ringo used her hind legs to kick at the toy as she chewed it. Tord chuckles at Ringo and ruffles her head as she continued to chew away at the toy. Edd just sat and watched Tord calmly play with Ringo, he decided to let them do that and he'd catch up on some sketching. He grabbed a sketchbook from his end table and a pencil then began doodling. 

_ 

Edd grumbled in frustration at his sketchbook, he just couldn't get the other hand right. It just looked a little off, it was so close. He looked up from the paper at Tord, who was still playing with Ringo.  
"Tord?" Said Norwegian looked up from the grey tabby, "can you help me for a second? I just need you to pose your hand." 

He nodded, "Sure, how do you want it?" Edd turned his half finished sketch towards Tord,  
"Kind of like this." He nodded again and pulled his left hand away from Ringo to pose. Edd turned towards Tord then started drawing. Tord held his hand as still a possible, his other hand was petting Ringo's back. 

Edd clicked his tounge against the roof of his mouth in approval as he finished his sketch.  
"Thanks." Edd smiled at Tord as he thanked him, "No problem." Tord shrugged as he scratched Ringo behind the ear. Edd picked up his phone to check the time,  
"Do you want some lunch?" Tord nodded and got up placing Ringo gently on the couch, she immediately hopped down and ran towards Edd's bedroom. Edd chuckled, "You might want to wash your hands first though." 

_ 

For lunch Edd made them some fish and chips, they had light conversation about random things as they ate. Tord took his meds as Edd started cleaning up. Edd and Tord went back to the living room, Edd had a console so they just ended up playing a racing game. 

"Ah! Come on!" Tord threw this hands up in the air in frustration, his controller falling onto his lap as he did so. "How are you so good at this?" Edd laughed,  
"I've played this a bunch of times, it's not like it's a new game or anything." Tord let out a childish huff of air at Edd's response as he picked his controller back up. Edd smiled and shook his head as he picked the next course. 

_ 

After a few more races of Edd coming in first and Tord landing anywhere between last and fourth, there was a knock at the door.   
"I'll get it," Tord got off the couch and walked over to the door, "oh, hey Tom." Tord greeted, Edd twisted to look at the door from his couch, with his controller in his hand he waved at Tom before turning back to the game.   
"You ready to go?" Tom asks, Tord nods and says bye to Edd closing the door behind himself. 

Tord sits down on Tom's couch as he lets out a tiny sigh of relief. He pulled his sweater off and set it beside himself, then he rolled his shoulders. They let out a satisfying crick. Tord groaned he felt like he needed a shower, he slouched down on Tom's couch. He looked over at Tom who was just scrolling through something on his phone.  
"Tom?" Tord began, Tom looked up from his phone to look at Tord. "Can I borrow a change of clothes?"


	11. Hanging Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys all go to a park. Tord meets an ‘old friend’.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, sorry this chapter is a day late. However I hope it being extra long makes up for it. This chapter’s song is Talk Too Much by: COIN. Also thank you all so much, I didn’t think I’d break a hundred hit let alone five hundred. I hope you all enjoy.

### Hanging Out

This sort of routine continued on for weeks, Tord being passed around during the day, helping his friends or even them spending time together without doing much. Every night he'd go back to Tom's to sleep, once in a while borrowing clean clothes then returning the clothing after. 

After each day the awkwardness eased up between the trio and Tord. They fell into a comfortable pattern with each other, even if it was a bit clunky. Once in a while the three's days off would a line and they'd all go do something together, like today. 

_ 

"Hurry up!" Matt calls from the door way of Tom's apartment, his yellow flip flops clicked as he jumped up and down in excitement. Matt's sunglasses fell down onto his face from his forehead as he kept moving. Edd smiled and sighed at Matt's actions, he shook his head from side to side. His arms crossed across his chest in a relaxed manner, he checked the time on his phone then slid it back into the pocket of his green sleeveless coat, similar to the ones someone would wear if they joined the British army. 

"He's right, the park is going to open soon." Edd added as he leaned against the door frame, "You got your meds?" He turned towards Tord, who was shoving a few pill bottles into his pocket.  
"Yeah," Tord answered as he walked over to the door, wearing some of Tom's summer clothes. Matt stops jumping to look at Tord, he was wearing some light brown cargo shorts with deep pockets and a black T-shirt.  
"We should go shopping later so you can stop wearing all of Tim's clothes." Matt says in a teasing tone. 

Tom walks out of his bedroom, and habitually corrects Matt,   
"It's Tom." He trots over to his friends standing in his door way, he grabs his keys, wallet and phone off a table as he asks, "You guys ready?" Edd and Tord nod, but Matt is already gone, the three of them could hear distant flip flop clicks as Matt ran down the hall, trying to get to Edd's car as fast as he could. 

_ 

Matt made a squee noise, as he gushed about what they all were going to do at the amusement park. Tord smiled as he listened to Matt ramble on and on about the park, often repeating himself, as he tried to tell as much information about the park as he could before he had to breathe again. Every now and then Tom would interject with some thing else about it that Matt forgot to mention, sending him off on a distant tangent. 

After an hour of this, they finally made it. Even from the parking lot Tord could see the massive ferris wheel and a few roller coasters. Matt lead the group to the ticket centres at the entrance of the park, he slammed down some money excitedly on the counter. The ticket lady looked the group over, "Four day passes please." Matt chirpped happily at the lady, she let out a manly grunt and took the money. Not counting it she carelessly dropped the money in the cash register, she reached under the counter and pulled out four bracelets. She held out her hand, as Matt goes to grab the bracelets she drops them on the counter. Tord raised an eyebrow at her, she looked familiar. He looked at her name tag, it simply stated Paulean, Tord thought it did anyways as it was upside down. Her hair was kind of twisted like it wasn't on her head properly, it was also pulled back in an messy, unpraticed ponytail. 

Tord shrugged it off and grabbed his bracelet from Matt, she must've just had one of those faces. They kept walking as they put on their bracelets, Matt was dragging a laughing Edd off into a section of the park by the wrist, leaving Tom and Tord alone together. Tom looked at the stand in front of them, containing some maps and time guides of the park. He grabbed one each and shoved them into his pocket. 

"What should we do first?" Tom asked examining the giant map of the park in front of them.  
"How about that?" Tord points to a haunted house near by, Tom nods and gestured for Tord to follow. Tord looks at Tom as they walk, he's just staring at the ground with his hands in his pockets. His face scrunches up as he harsly kicks at a pebble. 

He looks at Tom one more time before pulling his gaze away, the haunted house was right in front of them. Tord opened his mouth to say something, but was stopped by Tom grabbing his wrist and dragging him into the haunted attraction. Tom stopped in front of the worker tending the ride, still holding Tord by the wrist. He pulls Tord's arm up showing the worker both of their bracelets. The worker looks at Tom skeptically, then at Tord his expression becoming confused. His eyes flick over Tom once more, he nods slowly and gestures at a small ride cart. 

They squeeze into the vechical, Tord pulls down the lap bar, it stops at his legs and hardly grazing the tops of Tom's legs. The cart lurches forward before actually moving, Tord can hear Tom suck in a breath of air as their backs hit the tough, leather like, padding lining the back of the seat. The cart moves slowly as it crawls on the track, making a small scraping noise. A fake skeleton pops out of a coffin strings tugging at its arms begging for it to move, but nothing happened, the plastic limbs laid lifeless at its sides. Tord scoffs at the obvious dollar store Halloween decoration as the cart crawls by. 

Tom watches what's going on around him with little interest, he lifts his head to swat at an offending plastic bat that dived a little too close to the cart. He laid his head back down on his crossed arms, the lap bar creaks in response.  
"Wow," Tom grumbled, "these effects are shit." Tord nods,  
"If you could even call them that, they're glorified props really, I could design better ones in my sleep." As if to prove Tord's point a low quality zombie noise plays out of a small, broken looking speaker, as a light turns on illuminating a jagged cardboard cutout of a zombie with a worse paint job. Even the paint still looked wet and showed signs of dripping down the cutout, causing a small puddle at the base. 

Tord scrunched up his nose at the smell of the wet paint, confirming his suspicions.  
"Why is it even wet?" He questioned out loud, the amusement park was supposedly open for a few days now.  
"Maybe it's new." Tom shrugged as he spoke.  
"Maybe." Tord repeated skeptically. _Even if it **was** new wouldn't they have at least waited until it was dry to put it out?_ Tord questioned internally as the cart slowly turned the corner. They passed a few more awful decorations before the ride was over. Once it was, Tord left the cart quickly. He was glad to be off that uncomfortable fake leather, the same employee glared at Tom again as the two exited the attraction. 

"What now?" Tord asked, peering over Tom's shoulder easily to look at the map in his hands. Tom lightly hit Tord's jaw,  
"Stop towering you're blocking out my Sun." Tord leaned back some as he continued to look over the map. Tom hummed thoughtfully before pointing at a spot on the map.  
"How about this?" Tord gave an approving nod and off they went, passing a few food stands and a merchandise cart. 

After walking a short distance, they stopped in front of a house of mirrors. Tord craned his neck to look up at the second floor of the building, he could see moving platforms through the giant glass pane front the building was sporting. This time he grabbed Tom's wrist and dragged him into the fun house. He showed the employee their ticket bracelets and once more the employee eyed him skeptically then glared Tom up and down before looking back at Tord giving them a hesitant nod of approval. 

Tord made an annoyed huff at this dragging Tom behind him further into the room of mirrors. _Why do they keep doing that._ Tord glared at the reflection of the employee as he thought this. He was used to people starring at his arm, that was normal, but this was different. It was like they were evaluating them or something. 

He snapped his gaze away from the mirror when he heard a thunk and then a hiss of pain. He looked over to see Tom, who had taken the lead walking Tord through the maze, pulling away from a mirror that he had walked face first into. Tord let out a sympathizing hiss of pain before asking,  
"You okay dude?" Tom responded by nodding, he was cupping his nose in one hand and rubbing his forehead with the other. 

The taller of the two walked forward and patted Tom's shoulder as he passed him,  
"Here, I'll lead." He reached up and grabbed the hand that was cupping Tom's nose, his nose was slightly pinker than normal due to the collision. Tord turned around and started walking, leading a confused and surprised Tom gently by the wrist. Tord stuck out his good arm and started running it along the wall of the fun house. 

"This Thomas, is how you cheat at a room of mirrors." He could see Tom scowl slightly as he answered,  
"Don't call me that." Tord chuckled softly and it bounced off the mirror walls, he pulled his hand off the wall to cover his mouth as he did so, before placing it lightly back on the wall. As they turned corners and went further and further into the fun house Tord let his hand slowly fall, until he was holding Tom's hand. 

_ 

Eventually after taking a few wrong turns, they rounded a corner to see the crappy metal grating that lead up to the second floor. Tord didn't let go of Tom as they got to the second floor. On the wall to their left there was a distortion mirror and in front of them there was some moving flooring. 

They ignored the cracking mirror, and hopped from moving pannel to moving pannel easily. After a bit of doing that, the fun house twisted back down to a shorter mirror maze again. Tord put his hand on the wall again, still leading Tom by the hand. They popped out of the fun house the employee glaring daggers at Tom through the glass divider separating the entrance and exit. 

"That was kind of anticlimactic." Tom commented as they descended the stairs of the fun house. Tord nodded, "I thought there would be more than mirrors in there." Tom hummed in agreement as he pulled the map out of his pocket with his free hand. He tipped it to the side so the map unfolded itself, Tom righted the map and looked at it.  
"What time is it?" Tord grabbed his phone.   
" 'Bout noon." He stuffed his phone back in his pocket his meds rattling as he did so.  
"Want to get lunch then?" Tord hummed and dramatically acted like he was mulling it over. Tom sighed,  
"Okay, I get it stupid question." Tord laughed quietly as Tom dragged him back in the direction of the food stands. 

_ 

Matt came skipping over dragging Edd with him by the hand. Edd had gotten a hat with the park's logo on it, and Matt got a napsack.  
"A little old for that aren't you?" Tom teased, pointing at Matt's latest bag.   
"Am not!" Matt pouted, "Right Edd?" He turned and looked at him, Edd took his other hand out of his pocket and patted Matt on the shoulder,  
"That's right bud." Matt smiled in a 'I-told-you-so' kind of way, Tom just tilted his head to the side slightly and lifted and lowered his eyebrows, rolling his eyes the best he could without them. 

"I'm going to get some corn dogs," Tord pointed with his free hand at said booth, "anyone want anything?"   
"Cotten candy!" Matt chirped and darted off to the booth leaving Edd behind.  
"I'm good." Tom reponded, "Here." He passed Tord some money,  
"Edd?"  
"Yeah, I'll have two." Edd gave Tord enough money to cover his order.  
"Okay I'll be right back." 

Tord walked over to the stand and checked the menu,  
"I'll have three corn dogs please." He placed the money down on the counter. He looked up at the employee and took a step back,  
"Adam?"


	12. Wait What

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam and Tord have a friendly chat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always thank you all for the hits and kudos, the song for this chapter is Acceptable in the 80’s by Calvin Harris. Sorry for posting a day late, this chapter is longer then the rest so far.

### Wait What

"Adam?" Tord looked the employee up and down, even with his obviously fake wig on, Tord could see his shiny black hair peaking out. Adam tensed and pursed his lips, his calculating eyes scanned Tord over, internally debating something. He let out a disappointed sigh as he reached up to scratch at his wig.  
"Am I that poorly disguised?" Tord crossed his arms across his chest and raised an eyebrow skeptically,  
"Yes." Tord said bluntly. 

He shook his head and grabbed the money off the counter where Tord had dropped it, he shoved it into the run down cash register crumpling it as he does so. Tord leaned onto the newly emptied space on the counter, trying to ignore the, what he hoped were; sticky slushy stains.  
"Why are you even here." Tord asked in a commanding tone.  
"Don't," Adam spat, his back turned on Tord, making his corn dogs.  
"Wha-" Tord started,  
"Don't use your leader voice on me." Adam interrupted, twisting around for a moment to point an accusing pair of tongs at Tord, before turning back, his apron shifting slightly as he did so. 

Then Adam sighed again,  
"Sorry, it's just," Adam made a frustrated sound, he raised his hand up to his wig, but let it drop back to his side before it touched his wig. "It's been really stressful." Tord stood up,  
"How so?" Adam turned around and passed Tord one of the corn dogs jammed poorly onto a popsicle stick.  
"That one is one the house." Tord nodded and grabbed some of his meds, then took them as he started eating his corn dog.  
"Thanks." Adam looked at Tord with a puzzled expression, he stared at where the label of the bottle was, cogs were turning gears in his brain.  
"You have meds now? I heard you went to the hospital but, jeez, were you really **that** bad?" 

Tord wiped his mouth with the back of his hand,  
"Answer my question first, then I'll give you the run down." Tord deadpaned. Adam let out a huff and tapped his foot,  
"I'm really not supposed to say." Tord leaned back onto the counter, his head resting in the palm of his hand. Tord looked up at him expectantly.  
"Stop being dramatic dude." Adam pursed his lips together, he tensed and untensed his arms at his sides . "Fine," Adam looked around before leaning down next to Tord, "the higher ups are freaking out right now man. We're not having any luck getting new recruits."  
"Still?"  
"Yeah, Orange and Yellow are gaining members, they'll be bigger than us soon." 

"Hey, Tord everything okay over here?" Adam and Tord jumped at the sound of Edd's voice. Tord stood up and backed away from the counter slightly, holding his hands up defensively like the counter was a wild animal. "Oh, uh, hey. Yeah it's fine, we're," Tord paused quickly as he tried to remember, "friends. I'm just catching up with him." Tord rubbed the back of his neck with his metal arm, and winced as it pulled out some of his hair. Edd looked from Tord to Adam then back,  
"Oh okay." Edd mumbled wearily. Adam turned around then back and handed Edd two corn dogs in grease soaked paper dishes,  
"These are for you right?" Edd nodded slowly,  
"Yeah thanks," he turned towards Tord, then pointed to some old looking picnic tables, which had their the paint peeling off, Tom and Matt where already sitting there, "We'll be waiting over there when you two are done." Tord let out a hum of acknowledgement then Edd went off in the drection of the tables, corn dogs in hand. 

"Was that one of them?" Tord whipped around at Adam speaking,  
"Yeah," Adam gave Tord a knowing nod, he used his index finger and scratched at the counter top, "anyways, what were you saying about them?" Adam pursed his lips again,  
"That was pretty much it, they've been suspiciously quiet." Tord ran a hand through his hair, stopping before it ran through fully, leaving part of it more spiked than the other. 

"Wait if we're low on soldiers why are you here? Shouldn't you be out scouting?" Adam looked away from Tord, his mouth was pulled into a thin line.  
"Actually I'm not the only one here."  
**"Wait what."** Tord growled, slamming his hands on the counter. Adam backed up slightly. His hands up in surrender. Tord brought his left hand up to his face and pinched the bridge of his nose, leaving little crescent shaped moon marks.  
"Do they realize how wasteful this is! Why the hell is there anyone here anyway!" He dug his metal fingers into the counter slightly, an audible crack sounded off as he did so.  
"Hey! Hey, calm down." Adam reached out and held Tord's shoulders gently rubbing circles into them with his thumbs.  
"Breathe Red, breathe." 

Tord's shoulders relaxed slightly as Tord sighed, "Its, its just."  
"I know, I know." Tord moved his robot hand and starred down at the counter,  
"Sorry about that." He pointed at the new dent, Adam shrugged,  
"It's fine, it's fake anyways." Tord looked up at Adam with a confused expression.  
"Ah, right. Well, um, how do I word this." Tord tilted his head to the side, _why is he hesitating about this?_  
"The park, it's fake. Every part of it. We built it yesterday.  
"But why?" Tord stammered, "it's such a waste of time." "It's, it's for scouting." Adam spat quickly in a flat tone that, to Tord at least sounded rehearsed. Tord pursed his lips at the sudden change in Adam's tone. 

"Okay." Tord spoke slowly, noticing Adam's grip tightening on his shoulders making the muscle become tense again. "But, now that I think of it, I haven't seen any other people here besides employees." Adam groaned and let go of Tord's shoulders to rub his eyes. "I know, I didn't say it was a **good** scouting tactic." Adam sighed and leaned on the counter, "So about what you've been up to..." 

Adam said nothing for a moment as he analyzed Tord's face, trying to find anything that would tell him Tord was lying. "Are, Are you serious?" Tord nodded in response, "Two months?" Adam scratched the side of his face from his cheek bone to his chin.  
"Yep." Tord answered popping the p.  
"Christ Red." Adam pinched the bridge of his nose. "Two months! What are you even going to do once your time is up?" Tord opened his mouth to reply but no words came out. _Wait, what **am I** going to do?_ Tord stared down at the dent in the counter as he thought to himself, the extra month recently added to his sentence, as per the doc's request still didn't help with his what comes after question, Adam just watched his face as he lulled the question over. 

"I have no idea." Adam looked at Tord with a blank expression just watching him, Tord shifted under his gaze. Finally Adam just sighed wearily and shook his head, before he passed Tord his final ordered corn dog. "Okay, well. If you need to talk here's my cell." Adam grabbed a napkin and the pen for receipts, then wrote down his number. Tord took the napkin and shoved it into his pocket. Adam pursed his lips and shook his head as Tord walked away. He grabbed at a phone under the stand. 

Tord followed along with whatever the trio wanted to do, he wasn't really paying attention as they dragged him through ride after ride. He was more focused on his and Adam's conversation, and consequently the army. Turns out despite Matt's ranting as raving there wasn't that much to the park after all, so after a few more rides and a couple of prize booths they were heading back to the apartments. 

Matt was going on about how much fun the park was, and Edd was listening as best as he could whilst trying to drive and not crash his beloved Honda. Tord felt Adam's number burning a hole in his pocket, it felt like he was lying. It made Tord's stomach churn, even if he wasn't lying. He told Edd the truth, him and Adam **were** friends, he didn't lie about that. Did it have to do with the fact that he was an army friend? Tord's stomach lurched into his throat like that old cart from the park, that must be it. Even thinking about the army felt wrong, especially around them. He couldn't betray their trust again, he wouldn't, Tord vowed. He refused to do that to them again, Tord promised to himself that he wouldn't go back to the army again, he'd have to be dragged there if he did, but he still wouldn't go willingly. 

The car jolted forward, choking Tord on the seatbelt. He looked up from where he was starring at the seat. They were back at the apartments. As soon as Tord was out of the car he sucked in a breath of air. He stood still for a moment just enjoying the breeze, trying to distract him from the memories of the army lurking in the back of his brain. He jumped forward at a harsh slap to the back of his head. He whipped around to see an angry looking Tom standing there tapping his foot. 

"Hurry up." He spat, Tord just looked at him with a puzzled expression, he rubbed where Tom had hit him. "Okay?" Tord answered, Tom let out a huff then spun on his heel and starting stomping his way into the building. "What is that about?" Tord questioned out loud to himself rubbing the back of his now sore head. 

They were back in Tom's apartment, Tord had his legs curled under him as a now slightly less mad Tom flipped through channel on the telly. Tom tossed the remote between them once he circled back to the news. 

"What are you so upset about?" Tord muttered to himself, Tord flinched a little as Tom snapped towards him, with an accusing look on his face.  
"Don't act like you don't know!" Tom jeered,  
"What?" Tord asked, as the news went on about some kids vandalizing buildings with suspected gang symbols. "You, Ugh!" Tom groaned in frustration, the news continued rambling this time about how some vandal had appeared to have stopped smashing park vending machines. 

"Me?" Tord pointed to himself,  
"Yes you."  
"What did I do?" Tord questioned, now the news was talking about a resent string of kidnappings,  
"Why were you flirting with that guy?" Tom demanded, "I- What? I didn't flirt with anyone."   
"Yes you did. You got his number and everything." Tord stopped for a moment, freezing the confused look on his face as he thought about what Tom just said. He was suddenly overly aware of the napkin in his pocket. 

"Do, do you mean the corn dog guy?"  
"Yes!" Tom snapped.  
"You mean, my friend, the corn dog guy."  
"Ye-, wait what?" Tom said, immediately losing his edge, the argument he had seemingly prepared on the way back crumbled.  
"I've known him for a while now, we kind of lost touch and he gave me his number. I wasn't flirting with him." Tom opened and closed his mouth not saying anything, Tom's face flushed in embarrassment. Tord bit his lip to stop himself from saying anything else, he covered his mouth as a noise similar to a snicker escaped. Tom went a deeper shade of red,  
"I, I. Um sorry." Tom stammered, avoiding looking at Tord.  
"It's, fine." Tord replied, swallowing his confused questions. Tom turned away from Tord, becoming very interested in his phone's chipped case. 

After a few minutes of looking anywhere but where by Tord was, Tom muttered something that sounded like 'night' and scurried off to his room, leaving Tord alone in the living room. Tord turned off the news, then tossed the remote on the end table. He stretched out on the couch and let out a satisfied sigh as his back cracked. 

Tord rolled over on his sided and yawned, as he tried to fall asleep his mind wandered back to Adam and the army again. He scowled, then flipped over onto his other side. The intrusive thoughts followed him anyways, worming their way into his brain. Adam's presence at the park raised so many questions, and their talk caused even more then it answered. Even if Tord didn't want to be around the army scene anymore, it's low numbers still concerned him. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't drop them just like that. 

But he would, he had too. He couldn't go back to them not after how bad he'd seen it really was there. Especially for the prisoners, or even their own low ranking soldiers. Tord turned again, twisting himself in the blanket. He squeezed his eyes shut, he was giving himself a headache. Tord flipped so that he was laying on his stomach, and stared through the darkness at Tom's door. Tord stretched again, letting his limbs dangle over the sides of the couch. He just watched the door, and eventually started to drift off. 


	13. Old Business

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tord flashes back to the time right before the robot incident.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the hits and kudos, I can’t express how much it means to me. This chapter’s song is my head hurts by the waves.

### Old business

_"Goddamn it." Tord growled as he slammed down his lighter. He took a long drag of his fresh cigarette, the smoke coiled as it filled the air of his office. He sighed and rubbed his eyes with his free hand. Tord continued smoking as he flipped through some of the day's reports on his desk. A knock sounded off from the big oak door of the office, and Tord's secretary poked his head through the door,  
"Sir, all of the commander's are ready."  
"Send them in." Tord said without looking up, the secretary disappeared for a moment before coming back with three people. _

_Tord gestured for them to have a seat in front of him. The secretary scampered over to stand beside Tord's desk, a electronic notepad awaiting patiently in his hands.  
"Thank you three for coming," Tord started after sitting up properly, "as you all know there's been a, rift lately between the factions. So did you all bring your reports as I requested?" The commanders placed their respective coloured reports down on the table. Tord looked down at the red, orange and yellow reports, then back up at their respective commanders. The red commander had her own cigarette and was starring out the window behind Tord. The orange commander was sitting straight, paying attention to Tord, her leg bouncing as she fiddled with the sleeve of her commander uniform. Finally the yellow commander was smiling uncomfortably, then stiffened as a few poker cards fell out of their sleeve as they were rubbing their arm. _

_The secretary leaned over the desk and used the end of his tablet pen to open a file. Then began writing in his tablet quickly about page after page of the reports. Tord watched with a mild interest before turning to his underlings.  
"Have any of you managed to ease any tension throughout the sectors?" Tord questioned as he put out his cigarette bud and lit another one.  
"Can I get a light?" The red commander asked holding her unlit cigarette towards Tord, he lit it for her without saying anything.  
"No, Red leader, if anything our efforts are making it worse." The orange commander answered, putting emphasis on red leader, glaring at the red commander as she did so. _

_In response she scoffed and shook her head, turning away to puff on her cigarette and cross one leg over the of top of her other one. Tord hummed skeptically. His secretary passed him his tablet showing Tord notes on the reports. He sighed,  
"If we keep going like this the rift isn't going to be fixable." Something in the back of Tord's head told him it was already too late. "Do any of you have any idea's on how to undo some of the damage?" _

_All three commanders stayed silent.  
"Very well. Let's move on then." The Yellow commader looked from orange to Tord and back again. They shifted in their seat,  
"Uh, Sir? I thought we were only going to discuss one thing."  
The Orange commander stiffened, and pursed her lips. She glared daggers at Yellow, in turn Yellow audibly gulped. Tord narrowed his eyes at his commanders, as he stifled his cigarette in his ash tray.  
"Stop acting like children," Tord seethed as he rubbed his eyes in frustration, "this is a meeting, not your quarters." _

_They straightened in their seats. Both muttered a 'Sorry, Red Leader.' respectively and adverted their gaze.  
"Lets move on shall we?" Tord opened a desk drawer, retrieving a plain looking folder with the red army insignia on it. He dropped it unceremoniously on the desk. Tord leaned back in his chair, kicking his legs out under the desk as he does so. The Red commander side eyes the folder, before reaching out to touch it. Tord's Secretary tapped the back of her hand with the end of his tablet pen, then pulled the folder closer to Tord. _

_A few coloured smaller files peaked out from the folder, Tord swept them back into place as he picked it up. He used his thumb and flicked it open. Holding it in such a way that only he could see it's contents. He thumbed through it for a minute, skimming the words as he went. Tord paused and lowered the file.  
"As you all are aware, we're having trouble with our recruiting process. London is running out of recruit possibilities. So, I am assigning you three small teams and sending you out to try to grab new recruits." Tord pulled out some thinner files from the folder in his hand, then passed them to their assigned Commanders.  
"Be warned however, I'm sending you outside of our territory. Lay low and be careful." _

_"That is all. You four are dismissed." Everyone left Tord's office differently. Orange was muttering aggressively to Yellow as they left, Tord's secretary grabbed some of the excess folders off of Tord's desk before he too took his leave, leaving Tord and the red commander alone. The Red commander put out her cigarette in the ash tray on Tord's desk._

_She leaned forward on the desk and rested her elbows on it.  
"You do know what they're doing right?" Tord sighed and moved the ashtray away from her elbows.   
"Yes, yes. Of course. They're hardly nonchalant about it." _

_The red commander hummed in agreement. She shifted in her chair, he watched as she rolled a stray pencil on Tord's desk in a line then circle.  
"What do you have to report, truthfully." He asked flipping the lid of his lighter open and closed. The red commander leaned back in the chair some, she stopped the pencil's motion with her index finger.  
"They're has been some, rumours I suppose you could call them, drifting around." She leaned forward so much the desk creaked, at hardly a whisper she continued, "There's someone, or it sounds like a group of them, anyways there's something digging around. From what I've heard they have it out for you. The weird thing is it seems that this entity or whatever has nothing to do with Orange and Yellow." _

_Tord spoke as he reached for his box of cigarettes,"Strange."_

___

_Tord swirled his chair around to look out the window, the sun was setting over the hills, casting various shadows throughout the room. He took one final drag of his cigarette before putting it out. Tord let out an exasperated sigh, as he let his head drop. He ran a hand through his hair._

_He pushed himself out of his chair, and walked closer to the giant glass pane window. Tord looked at his reflection, his brown hair was disheveled from where he had ran his hand through it. His clothes were slightly wrinkled, because Tord had passed out at the desk in his quarters the previous night, and he hadn't bothered to change. His eyes looked slightly more sunken in than usual due to the bags collecting under them._

_Tord pursed his lips as he tried to use his hands to fix his hair. He pulled at the red hood that poked out of the top of his coat, readjusting it so that the strings were even. Giving himself a once over in the window, Tord decided that he was presentable enough to make it back to his quarters. After fixing his chair, Tord grabs a few files off of his desk, a couple of stray blueprints, before stuffing his lighter and cigarettes into his coat pockets. Then makes his leave._

___

_The door makes a loud mechanical click as Tord closes it behind himself. He drops his things on an empty part of his desk, which is somewhat of an amazing feat. As he sits down he unbuttons his coat, shrugging it off once the final button is undone. Tord unfolds one of the sets of blue prints careful to not knock anything off the desk. He scrunches up his nose at the blue prints and drops it into a almost overflowing bucket labeled ‘ **Fix**_ ‘. He opens the second one only to be met with the same incoherent labeled scribbles. Tord grabs a pencil that is semi-sharp off his desk and starts fixing the chicken scratch writing into something more easily readable. 

_Once he was content enough with the rewrite Tord dropped the blue prints into a bucket labeled ‘ **In Progress** ’. He grabs the next one and begins to read it over. Tord's eyes widen, he didn't remember designing it, but that was clearly his three in the morning chicken scratch scribbles. It would certainly put the Red Army in the lead if the Yellow and Orange factions were to go through with their threats to split off. A sly grin grew on Tord's face as he continued to look over the blue prints, they had everything they needed the Red Army could start preparations rig- "Oh." Tord muttered. Everything except a giant energy core. Tord leaned back in his chair, that would take so long to build. Let alone the nonexistent resources it would consume during its construction. _

__

_Tord picked up the blue prints and was about to throw them out when the picture on his desk caught his eye. It was a picture of Edd, Tom, Matt and himself. He set down the blue prints and picked up the picture. It was the four of them in front of their old house, Edd had his left arm around a disinterested Tom, who in turn had his right arm slung around Edd and his left out stretched slightly due to Edd pulling him closer, Edd's right arm was around Tord who was slightly squished and waving at the camera. Tord had his other arm pinned, as Matt pushed his way into frame, also waving at the camera with much more energy than Tord._

__

__

__

_He smiled down at the picture, and started reminiscing about all of their adventures, and how he built his first lab in that house. His smiled dropped as an idea clicked in his head.  
"That's it! My first lab!" He whisper shouted. Tord thought back to everything he'd built and left there. Trying to remember if he'd had anything close to a giant energy core.  
"The robot, of course!" Tord gently slammed his fist on his desk, barely missing a few pieces of scrap. _

____

__

____

_ 

____

__

____

_"Sir, I'm not sure this is a great idea." Tord's Secretary said, as he ran a hand through a section of Tord's hair. Tord groaned,  
"Should I have not went with dark honey? Ugh, I knew I should of went with something else." The plastic gloves on the Secretary hands raddled as he shook his hands side to side.  
"No, no. No, that's not what I was referring to, Sir. I think your hair looks lovely. I was talking about the reason **why** you're dying your hair, again. Personally I liked the dark brown." _

_____ _

__

_____ _

_Tord pursed his lips,  
"You know I have to dye my hair frequently, I'm not exactly on good terms with the authorities. Besides no one else can go, I have security measures in place so no one can get into that lab but me." The Secretary took off the dye stained gloves and replaced them with clean ones.  
"Sir, I know but-"   
"You don't have my eyes so you can't get in." Tord lies, shifting in the chair that was dragged into his bathroom as he does so. The Secretary just sighs in response, before he gently pulls Tord head over the sink and begins washing out the hair dye.  
"Just. Just be careful, okay?" Tord reaches up patting the Secretary's arm comfortingly.  
"I'll be fine, trust me." Even though Tord has confidence in his tone, something in the back of his mind doubts himself._

______ _ _

__

______ _ _


	14. Let’s Go To The Mall, Today.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tord and Matt go to the mall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m happy to announce that this fic has hit over 700, well hits and 40 kudos! Thank you all so much. Without further ado, this chapters song is Let’s Go To The Mall by: Robin Sparkles. This is a joke song by the way.

###  Let’s Go To The Mall, Today.

_ 

Tord quietly eats breakfast as Edd,Tom and Matt chat with eachother comfortably. Matt turned toward Tord, with a spoon lifted up frozen mid bite.  
"So ‘Todd’, today's my day off. Which means we can go shopping today!" Matt beams,  
"It's Tord," Tord automatically corrects, "and yeah, if you want to." Tord absent mindedly picks at Edd's table cloth. Matt makes a happy highpitched noise and claps his hands together, making Tom groan and clutch his head. "Shhh, quite time, please." Tom grabs his coffee off the table to take a swig of it.  
"You have to stop drinking on work nights." Edd scolds. Tom sticks his tounge out at Edd in response, then keeps drinking his coffee.  
"Whatever." He says in between sips.  
"As for you too. The drunkard and I have work today," Edd motions between him and Tom with his thumb, Tom grumbles in annoyance, "so you'll have to take a coach." 

_ 

"Tada!" Matt out sweeps his arms as they walked into the mall. Tord rubs his arm,  
"It's very, crowded." Tord mumbles, his voice too quite to be auditable over the herd of people. He raises his voice some,  
"You sure I'll be fine?" Matt blew a raspberry,  
"Yeah, it's just a mall. Nothing high security." Tord hums in concern but lets Matt drag him to the giant map of the mall. Matt's eyes flick over the map, he snaps his fingers,  
"Oh! I know." Matt grabs Tord by the sleeve then gently drags him over to and escalator. As they ascend Matt goes over their game plan.  
"We're going to hit a few stores, then break for lunch. Then go through the last few and head back." 

_ 

Matt happily smiles as he flips through a few shirts, holding a couple up to Tord's chest. He puts one back and flings the other over his arm.  
"Are you sure you don't want a new hoodie? That one is really old at this point." Tord waves the question off best he can with one arm.  
"It's fine, I'm wearing this one till it's rags." Matt peers at him and Tord shifts the bags in his arms, careful not to let any clothes fall out.  
"Okay..." Matt purses his lips, "At least let me ask Edd to patch it up for you, so it lasts longer of course." Tord looks over at a display of some clothes with neons so bright it hurt your eyes when you looked at them.  
"I don't know, I wouldn't want to bother him."   
"I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem, and if he can't do it I can always ask someone from work."  
"I guess so." Tord mutters, Matt happily claps.  
"I'll ask him later then." He picks up a few more shirts and heads off in the direction of the cashiers. The hairs on the back of Tord's neck stand up, but he shrugs it off to the cold department store. 

"Wow." Tord's jaw goes slack slightly at the size of the food court.  
"Yep." Matt grabs his sleeve and drags him all the way through the doorway. They grab plastic blue trays and walk around the food court ordering and grabbing food. Matt pays for it and they make their way to the tables to eat. 

Tord takes his pills as Matt takes a handful of fries off of Tord's tray.   
"You know you don't have to do all this." Tord says as he grabs a burger off of Matt's tray.  
"What do you mean?" Matt grabs some more fries, "Buying me all this stuff."  
"Well it's not like you can buy it yourself, besides you can't keep wearing ‘Tim's’ clothes," Matt smirks, "unless, you like it." Tord's face flushes in embarrassment and he stammers,  
"Of, of course not!" Tord's voice cracks as Matt cackles. "I'm just teasing," Matt pushes a smoothie closer to Tord, "here, peace offering." Tord huffs and snatches the smoothie off the table. 

After they finish the food they dump the trays, then leave the food court with their smoothies and bags. Matt drags Tord through the last few stores, snagging a few shirts for himself. Once that was done Matt and Tord left the mall, it was overcasting plus there was a slight breeze. They walked over to the spot to wait for the coach. 

"Ugh, the end of summer is drawing near." Matt complains as he rubs his arms.  
"Yeah, should've brought a coat I guess." Tord shifts uncomfortably, there was a man sitting on a bench practically running Tord over with his gaze, he'd been staring ever sense they walked up. The hairs on the back of his neck was starting to stand on end. He let out a brief sigh of relief at the coach turning the corner. 

_ 

Tom's couch creaked as Tord flopped down on it. The plastic crinkled as the shopping bags hit the floor.  
"I'm not buying you a dresser." Tom meandered over to Tord from the kitchen. He lightly kicked one of the bags knocking it over.   
"I know." Tord replied, his words sounding garbled due to the cushion in his face. Tom grabbed one of the bags and opened it, it was a few shirts and a couple pairs of pants. 

Unceremoniously Tom dropped the bag back onto the floor. He kicked Tord's legs off his couch and sat down.  
"No shoes on my couch." Tord grumbled something inaudible into the cushion. His shoes clicked against the hardwood as he kicked them off, then he swung his legs back onto the couch landing on Tom's lap.  
"Ew, get your feet off of me." Tord lifted his head just enough so he spoke clearly,  
"No." He dropped his head back on the cushion.  
"Uh, yes. My house, my rules." Tord lifted his head again, "One this isn't a house. Two, no."   
"Yes." Tom pushed Tord's legs off his lap.  
"No." He put his legs back.  
"Yes!" Tom shoved Tord's legs in his direction.  
"No!" Tord carefully slammed his legs back on Tom's lap, Tom sighs.  
"Why are you like this." Tord blew a raspberry at Tom, as he flipped over now facing the ceiling.  
"I hate you." Tom grumbled, though there was no bite to his words. 

He moved Tord's legs so they weren't digging into his lap, but they were still resting comfortably, he rested an arm on top of Tord's legs. Tord stretched his arms and flopped them over their respective sides of the couch.


	15. What’s Up Doc?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapters song is The Night Pat Murphy Died By: Great Big Sea.

### What’s Up Doc?

"Hey man." Tom starts, adjusting his checkered bracelet as he does so.  
"Yeah?"  
"Can you pass me that?" Tom guesters towards the remote on the table next to Tord. Using the remote Tord turns on the telly and lightly tosses the remote at Tom. Just as he catches it Tord's phone goes off in his sweater pocket. Tom grunts in annoyance at Tord shifting to grab his phone. The phone alerts Tord of a doctors checking in appointment in a few days, Tord sighs in response and lets his head fall back, hitting his head on the arm rest of the couch. 

_ 

"How much longer?" Matt whines, his legs barely able to swing between the flimsy legs of the plastic waiting chair.  
"A few more minutes." A nurse in blue scrubs answers from behind a half moon shaped receptionist desk, before grabbing a clipboard and some gear then walking away.  
"Its been 'a few more minutes' for the past hour." Tom complains, his arms are crossed across his chest, and one of his legs is resting on the top of his thigh. 

Edd quickly checked the time on his phone as he spoke,  
"I'm sure it won't take long." Tom grumbled something similar to a curse under his breath and crossed his arms tighter. 

_ 

"Are you sure?" Tord nods and folds his hands neatly on his lap, his leg bouncing with impatience.  
"Alright," The doctor, who Tord had learned the name of, Dr.Florence, checked off another box on his familiar checkbored.  
"What about," Dr.Florence looked over his already completely checked list, they had finished in the first twelve minutes or so, he was just stalling now. "Aha, have you had anymore fainting spells? Any other negative effects due to the pills or other wise?" Tord shook his head, the repetitiveness was starting to get to him. 

Dr.Florence sighed, before he adjusted his glasses so that they rested lower on his nose.  
"Well, I guess that just leaves one more thing." He sits down on a rolling stool next to Tord, who is sitting in an examination chair.  
"We really should discus your post recovery situation and what minor medication you might need, but unfortunately I'm needed elsewhere. Besides it isn't particularly crucial currently, you seem to be okay all things considering, we'll let you know when your results come back. So until next time Tord." They both stand up and shake hands, a nurse walks up to Tord and gestures for him to follow. 

He walks over to the trio who are sitting in seemingly uncomfortable generic chairs, due to the fact that they were sitting on the chairs as little as they can, whilst still staying on them.  
"You ready?" Edd says as he stands up and claps his hands together once. Tom and Matt stand up as well, one of their backs audibly cracking as they did so.  
"Yeah," Tord shakes a slightly newer bag of pills, "just have to sign the last bit of paperwork." 

_ 

Edd's car clunks every few seconds as they hit a bump, dirt flys past the windows as the car drives down a gravel dirt road, gravel bounces off the bottom of the car making a clinking noise. Tord shifted the small paper bag on his lap, as he stares out the car window. Distant homes appear and disappear again in the horizon and Tord watches the closer fields as they pass by. A soft snoring sounds out throughout the car, barely audible above the radio and the gravel hitting the bottom of the car. Tord looks over his shoulder to see Tom slouched over asleep, his head swaying slightly in his sleep. 

He jolts slightly as Tom's head falls onto his shoulder on an akward angle. The car hits a larger bump and Tord freezes watching Tom carefully. He does nothing but shift his head slightly and move a bit closer to Tord. Edd makes eye contact with Tord in the rearview mirror and gives him a sly smirk, then quickly taps Matt on the arm and points behind them before returning his full focus on the road. Matt looks at Edd with a puzzled expression then glances behind them, he quietly chuckles and a shit eating grin plasters itself on his face. He wiggles his eyebrows at Tord before turning around again. 

Tord lets out a small huff, slight embarrassment written on his face. His eyes flick down to look at Tom, who was now hugging Tord's robotic arm and burying his face into it, Tord was thankful he wore a longer sleeved shirt. Tom's snoring was slightly muffled due to said sweater, but nonetheless he was sleeping peacefully on Tord. The car hits a bump causing for everyone to lurch forward some, Tom shifts in his sleep a bit holding onto Tord's arm with a light death grip. 

Edd makes a left and they're back on a main road, buildings start to gain in numbers and get closer to the road. Other cars slowly start appearing and soon strangers are walking on the sidewalks. The buildings get taller and the countryside homes turn into flats and apartment complexes. 

After driving for a bit more they pull into a parking lot. Edd heads inside to get Tom's spare keys, whilst Matt stays back to help Tord get a passed out Tom into his apartment. They shimmy Tom out of the car and with a little effort and carry him in, each holding an end of Tom. Tord is holding Tom up with his arms tucked under Tom's and wrapped around his waist, Matt held Tom by the legs in a similar fashion. 

Holding Tom like this, Matt and Tord carefully manoeuvred Tom through doorways and into the elevator. Tord held Tom with one arm awkwardly and pressed an elevator button. When they got to their floor Edd was waiting keys in hand. After they laid Tom down in his bed Edd and Matt left. Tord stood in the doorway and examined Tom's bedroom. 

The bed was pushed up against the back wall in a corner. There was a small pile of clothes next to the dresser on the left wall of the room, a little to the right of that against the back wall was Tom's base guitar with a small, portable amp next to it. Some posters adorned the walls but other then that the room was relatively empty. Tord sighed and exited the bedroom and headed for the kitchen.


	16. Ow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for helping me pass 900 hits, I never thought this fic you’d get anywhere’s near 500 let alone 1k. I personally hope you all enjoy this chapter. The song for this chapter is Paint My Face by The Devil Makes Three.

### Ow

_Tord stared at the ceiling his face expressionless. The right side of his head visibly bandaged with a diagonal wrap leading down under his shirt. Adam was rifling around in a cabinet next to the entrance of the room, and Tord's secretary was asleep on a flimsy chair next to Tord's bed, his head was titled back resting against the wall at an awkward angle. The door at the front of the room opened causing Adam to jump and the secretary to wake up with a jolt._

_A person Tord vaguely recognized talked quietly with Adam before dragging him out of the room, leaving the filing cabinet left wide open. Tord slowly sat up, careful of his IV drip. The secretary makes eye contact with Tord, his face lighting up.  
"Sir!" The secretary leans over the side of the bed and wraps Tord's left side up in a hug. He lets out a shaky sigh.  
"I, I thought..." He hugs Tord harder, though still careful of his right side, "I thought you were gone for, I haven't been able to see you sense you've been back." He paused and let go of Tord,  
"We saw the robot go down from here. Nasty explosion, the council didn't even want to go check on you." Tord looked down at his lap for a moment, clenching and unclenching his right hand listening to the sounds the gears made. _

_"The new council, you did hear right?" Tord sighed and let his head hit the wooden head rest of the bed frame.  
"Yes." He nodded and leaned back in his chair. "So you also know about the discussion about you then." "Yes, yes of course, next week." Tord ran his left thumb over the back of his other hand. _

_"Hey," Tord started, the secretary looked over at Tord,  
"Yeah?"  
"I don't think you've ever told me your name." The secretary opened his mouth to refute but quickly closed it again.  
"Nathan." Nathan stuck out his hand, his silver watch sliding up his wrist consequently.  
"T-" Tord started, grabbing Nathan's hand and shaking it as he began to say his own name. Nathan put up his free hand in Tord's face stopping him.  
"I'll stick with Red, if you don't mind."   
"S'fine." Nathan straightened the generic pink flower picture beside Tord's bed.  
"I'll be off then, be back in a bit." _

_With that he left Tord's sick room. Tord sighed and laid back down on the bed, once more staring at the cheap, cracking paint on the ceiling, he raised his right arm over his head then began flexing it. The robotic parts responded twisting and moving at his command. With his left hand he touched the rubber joints at his fingers, wrist, and elbow. Tord wiggled his fingers and stared at the responding movements. His eye flicked from joint to joint. Next he ran his hand over the slight silver divots where metal was welded to metal._

_Sighing Tord dropped his arm back to his side. He looked at the now closed filing cabinet, Nathan must've closed it on his way out. Picking at the corner of his flimsy hospital gown Tord stared at the clock on the wall._

_ 

The next week droned on as Tord was suck in his bed. Only permitted to get up for physical therapy and the bathroom respectively. Nathan visited every other day or so and Adam continued to look after Tord during his recovery. 

_"Morning." Adam said as he pushed open the door with his shoulder, his and Tord's breakfast were on trays in his hands. Tord grunted in response something with a similar sound to 'euugggh'. Adam chortled as he placed Tord's breakfast on the nightstand, sitting in the rickety plastic chair._

_With a huff Tord flipped over, snatching a piece of buttered toast from Adam's tray._

_"Nice..." Adam said as he rolled his eyes, crunching could be heard from underneath Tord's bedsheets. A red metal hand appeared from the sheets beckoning Adam. He grabbed Tord's tray with one hand and held it near the hand. The glass of juice disappeared under the covers straw and all. Adam put the tray back, before beginning on his own breakfast. Tord threw back the covers with a sluggish motion and set the glass on his tray._

_With a careful eye Adam watched Tord get out of the bed and stretch. In between bites of stolen toast Adam spoke,  
"Your meeting is today." Tord recoiled as Adam accidentally spit some toast in his direction.  
"I'm aware." He slid his threadbare slippers on before shuffling over to the grey dresser on the other side of the bed. Adam shrugged, setting his empty tray under Tord's. "I'm just reminding you." _

_"So you might want to wear something more," he pauses swirling his hand in the air thinking, snapping his fingers once he finds it, "presentable." Tord looks over his shoulder with a puzzled expression. He narrows his eyes,  
"Oh. You mean not to wear my sweater." _

_Before Adam could defend himself, Nathan burst in the room sliding on his shoes._

_His clothes were slightly dishevelled, as was his hair. Nathan was blubbering apologizes and scribbling frantically into his omnipresent tablet.  
"I'm, I'm so sorry! I'm so late to breakfast." Nathan made a disgruntled noise as he pulled out some files with one hand, writing on his tablet with his nose momentarily. _

_Dropping the files on the bed, he sat next to Adam on a even more unsafe looking plastic chair, it wobbled with any slight movement.  
"Those contain all the things you'll need to know about for your meeting with the council." _

_Tord eyed the files, then looked up at Nathan. Adam sighed and set down his drink. A black coffee.  
"Teal, calm down." Adam clapped Nathan on the back, almost causing him to drop his tablet. "Deep breaths." _

_Whilst Adam calmed Nathan down, Tord was nosing through the peach coloured files on the bed. It was filled with basic information that Tord was aware of already. Mostly bullshit about the council itself, little snippets about the five members.  
"Fucking fluff pamphlet garbage." Tord muttered under his breath. Adam side eyed him as he patted Nathan's shoulder. _

_Tord threw down the folder he was holding back onto the bed. Nathan was looking better now, Adam had straightened his tie and fixed his collar. His hair however was an unruly curly mess._

_Nathan adjusts his tablet in his hands to look at his watch._

_"There's a few hours before your meeting, I suggest you go over those until then." He points at the files on the bed._

_ 

_Tord pulled at the collar of his jacket as he shifted uneasily from foot to foot. His arms were cold without the extra padding that his sweater usually provided. As impressive as it was that Adam had gotten Tord away from his sweater, it was one upped as Nathan had some how managed to pry himself away from his tablet, a feat would possibly be an understatement, Tord was pretty sure that he slept next to the thing, it now however was turned off, and stowed away under his arm. Nathan opened two large oak doors and motioned Tord to go through, following him close behind._

_They sat down at a small wooden table, with old chairs. Extremely overshadowed by the judge like table the five members of the council were sitting at. Adam was standing by the door watching next to two bulky guards. A small old lady was perched right in front of the council ready to type on a typewriter._

_"Let's start," The council member in the middle boomed. Tord watched from the corner of his eye as Nathan straightened under the council's gazes._

_His attention was quickly drawn back to the council itself as the middle member leaned forward and glared at Tord.  
"You have been usurped, as a collective my fellow council members and I have decided that you should," They leaned forward even more, almost moving into the single light that was overhead,   
"step down whether you choose to. Or, by force." _

_The table groaned as the weight of the council member lifted slightly as they sat back down. Once the noise of the table stopped echoing throughout the room they continued._  
"However," the word was hissed and dragged out,   
"We have a proposal for you, Red." 

_Tord opened his mouth, only getting a single syllable out before being interrupted with a deafening, "SILENCE." the old crone with the typewriter shrieked. Tord recoiled slightly but otherwise went motionless._

_A sound could be heard of a throat being cleared coming from the council's table, before the middle member resumed like nothing had happened. "Instead of ignoring all of your work for the army and tossing you completely," a hint of malice seeped from the voice, "we are willing to offer you a new position, as a commander."_


	17. Movie Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tord enjoys a movie night with Tom,Matt and Edd. Though the movie turns sour after a familiar face to Tord appears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning, there is a mention of blood in this chapter nothing really descriptive. But I’d thought you guys would like to know before hand. Anyways the song for this chapter is, Life has been good to me (remastered version) By: Randy Newman. Enjoy!

### Movie Night

Tord peered around the doorframe of Edd's kitchen, watching as Tom, Matt and Edd chatted on Edd's couch, Matt had the Telly's remote and was channel surfing. He looked down at the different coloured bowls containing buttered popcorn in his hands before sighing. 

They continued talking as Tord walked over he handed them each a bowl of popcorn, keeping the final one for himself. Tord sat down in between Tom and Matt, Edd sitting to Matt's right. Matt flips past a few news channels all talking about new similar kidnappings. A insane zombie pirate from hell rerun pops up on screen and Matt stops for a moment, before setting the remote down on Edd's coffee table, a recent addition sense Tord had been in his apartment last. 

Tord chews on the inside of his cheek as he runs his finger along the outside of his bowl, making small shapes. 

Tom leans forward some, almost spilling some of his popcorn, before calling out a prediction about one of the characters,  
"Evil! It's always the smart, nice one." He explains, pointing to a character on the screen, who was currently helping the main cast get food protected by zombies with swords and pirate hats. He snorts as the character steals a sword from a zombie and pushes it over, then began to chase the main cast.  
"Called it." He mutters, with a dramatic small fist pump with his free hand. Tord smirked and rolled his eyes at the action. 

A thunk noise came from Edd as he slammed his hand down on the armrest, making an already movie invested Matt, jump.  
"Damn it, alright, uh." Edd looks over the screen studying the characters, "Ah! Those two will get together before the movie's over." Tom grunts in disapproval, he shakes his head,  
"No, no. Those two will." Tom puts extra emphasis on the word, those. As he points to two characters fighting zombie pirates in the background back to back. 

_ 

This went on throughout the movie, everyone butting in with their predictions. It was mostly Tom and Edd, though Tord would occasionally throw in an obvious prediction. Once even Matt made an odd observation that turned out to be right. 

_ 

"Ugh, idiots! That's instant death in a box." Tord growls at the tv, then shoved a handful of room temperature popcorn in his mouth. Two of the main characters slinked into a coat closet to escape a horde. They sigh in relief, one of them pulls a metal chain, turning on a hanging lightbulb illuminating the small cupboard. Revealing ugly coats, and a zombie pirate, who smiles when they slowly turn to face it. The main characters scream and run out of the closet. 

Tord grumbles and eats more popcorn. His hand pauses mid bite as his eyes linger on a background zombie pirate. A piece of popcorn slips through his robotic fingers back into the bowl in his lap. He swallows the spit in his mouth and stuffs the rest of the popcorn in his mouth quickly, as the extra disappears off screen about as quickly as it appeared. 

The popcorn rattles in the bowl as Tord shifts in his seat, now more interested in Edd's entertainment stand. Tord chews on the inside of his cheek, he thinks he knows that kid, he remembers seeing a similar face from the red army. 

Oh god. He's _seen_ talked to him, and given him orders. Watched him when he, _oh fuck the blood, just everywhere._

"Excuse me." Tord mutters to the trio, his stomach lurched at the memory. The bowl of popcorn was half hazardly tossed on the couch, not hard enough to spill but not nicely placed either. Tord speed walks out of the room and dashes into the bathroom, locking the door behind him with a click. He wasn't going to be sick, but the face brought unpleasant memories with it. Dr.Florence's words bounce around in Tord's head,  
_"Post recovery situation."_ Next were Adam's,  
"Two months! What are you even going to do once your time is up?" 

What was he going to do next? Tord thought once more, he couldn't go back to the army that kid was proof enough of that. He didn't have any money, so he couldn't get a place to live. Living in the park wasn't an ideal option either. 

Tord slid down the door, resting his head in his lap. He liked living with Tom, and hanging out with him, Matt, and Edd again, but he couldn't keep mooching off of them all. The movie's noises sounded muffled through the walls, Tord sighed and looked up, he stared at the sinks's cupboard. Tord's eyes went wide as a thought wormed its way into his brain. 

_'Do they even want to stay my friends?'_

His eyes shot back down to the tiles on the floor of the bathroom, Tord ran a hand through his hair, wincing as some of it got caught in the robotic joints, and at another look at that kids face, _just covered in red._ He pulled out the hair from the joints as he continued thinking. They all were always so nice, so it wasn't that far of a stretch to him. Tord was such a dick to them before, he dropped in on them unexpectedly and he basically forced them to take care of him. 

Tord sighed and scratched the back of his neck with his right hand. He would make it up to them, he'd have too. Even so, that wouldn't stop them from going straight back to not interacting with him as soon as they didn't have to anymore. Tord shook his head and swallowed the air in his mouth. 

The wooden door creaked as Tord leaned on it with his good arm to stand back up. 

He dragged his heels as he walked to the sink. Tord stared at the now running water of the faucet, he ran his hand through it and watched the water flow around his hand. With cupped hands he grabbed some water and leaned over the sink, then tossed it up at his face. He did this a few times before rubbing his eyes. Tord dries his face with the shirt underneath his sweater. He looks in the mirror, with a slight adjustment to his hair, he uses some of the water to make the spikes slightly more prominent. Tord turns the water off before he turns to leave. 

Tom watches Tord from the corner of his eye. He quietly walks back over to the couch, as he sits down he sets his almost empty bowl of popcorn on the coffee table and pushes it away from himself.  
"What did I miss?"


	18. Antiquing With Clowns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tord and Tom hit the town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapters song is Daydreams by Easy Life.

### Antiquing With Clowns

"Uuuuugh." Tom drawls, he lightly hits his head on the steering wheel of Edd's car. Tord looked out the windshield at the road, they were driving through a construction zone, due to this the road was backed up a mile or so behind them. The gears clicked in Tord's arm as he adjusts his newly repaired hoodie. Tord turned to look at Tom, who was rubbing his temple, wincing every time a car horn honked behind them. The car was quiet aside from the distant honking, Tord scratched the back of his left hand with his right. 

"How come you and Matt don't have your own cars?" "Cheaper." Tom snaps his head still low. It was resting on the steering wheel, Tord stays quiet and watches Tom. Tom's shoulders drop then he rolls his shoulder blades, before closing his eyes. With a sigh, Tom brushes some stray hair off his forehead and stares at the road with a softer look. 

"Sorry," Tom mutters scratching his chin with one hand, "Matt can't drive actually, I can't remember if he didn't get his license or what. So really it's just me and Edd, just makes more sense to have one car. We can easily carpool to work and we live near a shop, so." 

Tord nods and looks away from Tom and down at the shopping list in his left hand. The car moves forward slowly as Tord skims the shopping list. As he reads Tord mutters the list under his breath, mostly generic groceries and odds and ends, cereal, fresh veggies, some meats, non-toxic sealant, some eggs, napkins, junk food, cups. Things like that. 

They leave the construction zone and Tom lets out a quick breath of air. 

_ 

Tom parks in front of a street of stores, a restaurant, bookstore, junk place, for rent spot, plus a few others Tord couldn't read the signs of or just couldn't see what they sold. One building on the far right at the end of the line up was the biggest store, which happened to be a grocers from what Tord could tell. 

They hopped out of the car, Tom waited for Tord on the sidewalk. Once he caught up they started walking up the street, to the left of where they parked. Tord passed the list to Tom. He looked down at it and shoved it into his jeans pocket. 

Store fronts advertised various things as they walked by. Tord looked in the stores window's briefly but stayed along side Tom the best he could as they walked. "Alright," Tom said, snapping his fingers as he stopped next to an old looking building.  
"This one's first." 

They stopped in front of an old brick and mortar shop, the brick was slightly choppy due to it being worn down with age. On the steps by the door there was a couple of potted plants, but other then that the store looked standard.  
"Want to go antiquing?" Tom looked over his shoulder at Tord with one hand on the guard railing. 

Tord wasn't sure what he was expecting when Tom said antiquing, but it wasn't this. Contrary to the largeness of the outside of the antique shop the inside made it feel cramped and small. The walls were lined with things, pictures, posters, vinyls, weird art from old grannies attics. Where there wasn't things on the walls there was a book case shoved into the empty space, the shelving was stuffed full of little useless thingys and whatnots. Or books so old the cover and spine would turn to dust if you sneezed in the same room as it. Old toys plus forgotten relics decked the floors and long tables that were everywhere in the room. If there was space there was junk, besides a shovelled path through the store to get to everything. 

The excess of dust in the air made Tord's nose have the perpetual feeling of needing to sneeze. He could practically hear his nose clogging at all the dust. Tom on the other hand looked perfectly fine, he was currently looking over the top layer of stuff on the closest table. 

He picked up an intricate looking flask, it appeared to be made out of silver and had a twist off top. The edge near the head of the flask had detailed etchings of flowers twisting and twining with each other, racing to get to the side of the flask. Tom turned it over in his hand an almost identical design was on the other side, though some of the flowers and their petals appeared to be bigger. 

Tom looked at the bright neon orange coloured tag, he winced and set the flask back down. He shook his head slightly as he moved farther down the table. Tord watched him go before picking up the flask himself. Its metal felt hefty in his hand, it appeared to be made out of silver with leather accents in the corner. The flask clicked as he set it back down on the table. 

Tord saw a lamp out of the corner of his eye, it was one of those old Hawaiian dancer lamps with an ugly floral lamp shade. He winced and turned away from it more, it hurt to glance at it no matter how low Tord's fashion sense is.  
"Man this thing is ugly." Tord looks over to where Tom is currently standing, near the back of the shop. 

He was holding a small clown doll, it had a half red half white suit on, with yellow buttons. It's hat was also half red half white except on the opposite sides the suit was. The hat had a yellow brim and pompom on the tip. Tord walked over to where Tom was to get a better look at it. It's mouth was frowning whilst the red and white paint around it tried to give the doll an illusion of smiling. It's eyes were sunken in and staring back with a tired gleam. 

Tord looked from Tom to the doll and back again, "Well, your cursed now." Tom made a fake offended scoff, before setting the doll on a pile of books on the table.   
"It's going to, like, crawl into your dreams forever now." "Yeah, yeah."  
"No really, it is. I saw a movie about it." Tord moved his hands through the air as he talked Tom through the plot of the movie, almost knocking several things off of the surrounding tables. Tom carefully grabbed Tord's left hand with his right as Tord talked, he held it and led Tord through the antique store towards the back. 

"That's why I think the Sasquatch shouldn't have drove the armoured vehicle." Tord stopped talking as Tom squeezed his hand, he looked in front of Tom and saw he was trying to talk to an old man, presumably the owner of the store. He muttered a sorry and squeezed Tom's hand back apologetically, before letting go. 

Tord put his hands in his pockets as he waited for Tom to finish, he was playing with a coin that got left in his pocket when he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He stopped moving the coin for a moment and subtly looked over his shoulder, pretended to check the table he 'accidentally' bumped. There was a dim corner of the room, Tord could swear he saw something move in the darkness, yet he hadn't seen anything. 

Tom was chatting pleasantries with the shop keeper, he was now holding a few guitar picks and two different sized coils of wire. Tord stared into the shadows of the corner, his eyes flicking back and forth trying to detect movement as he chewed the inside of his lip. 

A warm hand place's itself on Tord's shoulder,  
"You okay?" Tom asks,  
"I'm fine, yeah." Tord answers, he try's to pair it with a reassuring smile.  
"I, uh, I got what I needed," Tom holds up the wire, "we can go shop somewhere else if you want."  
"Oh, okay, yeah sure." 

_ 

Tord grunts as he shifts the bags in his arms.  
"You don't have to carry those, we have a trolley for a reason, y'know." Tom gestures to the shopping trolley he's pushing in front of himself, containing various foods. Tord blows a raspberry and shrugs,   
"It's fine." 

The cart squeaks as Tom and Tord walk around the store grabbing various foods on the shelves. Tom picks up two boxes of cereal and compares the boxes. Tord looks over his shoulder at the other person in the aisle, they were comparing two different types of soft drinks. The bottles looked identical except or a big diet label slapped on one of them. He watched as they turned to look at him, before fumbling one of the bottles almost dropping it. 

Tom tapped Tord on the arm to follow him,  
"We're almost done, then we'll take this stuff back to Edd's car." Tord sighed in relief, he could still feel the hair on his neck standing on end. 

"Seriously, you don't have to carry those." Tom grabbed at one of the bags in Tord's arms. Tord twisted the bags out of reach, holding them above Tom's head, "S'fine." Tom looked up at Tord studying his expression. 

He snatched two of the bags quickly, before Tord could protest more and dropped them into the cart.  
"Alright, let's go home."  
"Fine by me."


	19. The Oceans Peril

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tord,Tom,Matt and Edd have a nice night out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the kudos and hits. The song for this chapter is Freaking Out In The Neighborhood by Mac DeMarco. Enjoy!

### The Oceans Peril

"Here Ringo." Tord shakes a small container full of cat treats causing it to rattle. Something moves underneath Edd's couch making a series of bumps, but it stays hidden.  
"Are you sure there isn't an easier way to do this." Tord complains, Edd shrugs and continues searching through a cupboard in his bookcase pulling out various cat products looking a them for a moment, then putting them away.  
"She's always like this when it comes to baths."

Tord blows his bangs out of his eyes and ducks back down under Edd's couch. All he saw was Ringo's eyes reflecting in the darkness before he got bopped on the nose.  
"Shit!" Tord recoiled, his hand raced to his nose. "Holy fuck ow." He cupped his nose with both hands now, momentarily bringing the dish of cat treats with his hand, before dropping it.  
"Oh cows," Edd got down off his chair and crouched down next to Tord, "let me see."

Edd moves Tord's hands away from his face and looks at Tord's nose. There was a light mark about the size of an average paper cut if not a bit longer.  
"Stay here I'll be right back." Edd darts out of the living room towards his bathroom.

The couch made various thumping noises as Ringo moved about under it, she flattened as she crawled out from under it. Tord looked her in the eyes and she blinked slowly at him. He sighed and stuck out his left hand, Ringo walked up to him and rubbed the side of her face against his fingers.  
"You're lucky you're cute." Tord muttered as he petted Ringo's head. She was about to lay down on the floor but must've heard Edd coming back, and promptly prowled out of the room.  
"Here," Edd passed Tord a band-aid, "let's catch that cat."

_  


Tord sighed and sat on the hardwood floor. A still slightly damp Ringo ran into Edd's bedroom, her tail as puffed as it could go being wet.  
"She's going to hate you forever man." Tord took a drink of the off brand soft drink Edd had passed him. Edd let out a brief laugh,  
"She'll get over it, hopefully." The couch sank a bit as Edd sat down on it. Tord stretched out his legs till he heard a satisfying pop from them. A tone rang out from Edd's phone. A smirk turned into a ear to ear smile, Edd slapped his leg.  
"Hot dang, Tom got a promotion!"

Tord nodded and smiled,  
"Nice." But all he could think about is how he forgot to ask Tom for his number somehow, and Matt's, and Edd's. _What the hell was I gonna do if something happened?_ Tord smiled and nodded as Edd talked. Now solely focused on everything and anything that could've gone wrong because he didn't have any of their numbers. _What if something caught on fire, what if **someone** caught on fire, oh jeez. _ Tord kept nodding and smiling, now a bit strained as Edd talked. He was completely infatuated with his concerns. _What if someone got hurt? What if I went out with someone and I didn't know where we were and one of us got taken? Or hurt? Or more lost? Oh man._ The aluminum can crunched in Tord's hand. _Oh man, oh jeez, oh man, oh jeez, oh shit, oh fuck. What if Tom-._

"Tord!" Edd yelped. Tord blinked a couple of times and felt that his leg was wet. The can of soda was crushed, the aluminium now jagged threating to stab Tord's hand. Spilt off brand soft drink was now on Tord and the floor.

"Oh. Oh! Oh shit. I'm so sorry!" Tord released the can, the robotics in his arm making a small release sound as it let out some of the pent up air pressure. Tord could hear his heart beat in his ears.  
"I'll clean this up, fuck, sorry." Tord said as he went to stand up. Edd put his hand out, making Tord freeze in his place. Edd dug around in his pocket and tossed some keys at Tord,  
"Go grab a change of pants from Tom's and I'll clean this up, okay?" Edd stood up and brushed off his pants.  
"It's fine man, I've spilt stuff hundreds of times." Edd gestures to his shirt, then he claps Tord on the back and quickly laughs again,  
"Just don't do that tonight or they might kick you out, though I suppose they didn't kick Tom out yet so you're in luck!" Edd ends his sentence with a bark of laughter and heads towards the kitchen.

Tord looks down at the silver keys in his hand,  
"Tonight? The hell does that mean." 

_  


Tom laughed and pulled Tord closer by the shoulders dragging Edd with him, and pushing Matt out of the way. Tord shrunk in on himself as he realized how much noise they were making. _What a way to keep low._ The three of them squished into the pub dragging Tord with, the pub in front of their building looked nicer then Tord would of thought, The Oceans Peril was its title. 

All of the booth's seating were made of a nice black material, the tables appeared to be made of a sturdy wood, glossy and polished, with a gold trim. There was an L shaped bar with a black and grey marble counter top with lines of blue mixed in, the stools where made out of the same material of the booth seats and were built into the ground with a gold coloured metal pole. That's where a bartender was serving some people. Behind her was a wall of drinks on glass shelves with a mural of the nearby park on the wall behind it, though the mural was mostly focused on the lake. 

Tom spoke to a server behind a small wooden hostess stand, who laughed when Tom said he would be having a booth seat and not bar side. Tom friendlily slugged the man in the arm. The server lead them to a booth in a corner of the pub. They all sat down, Edd and Matt on one side and Tord and Tom on the other. Edd and Tord were against the wall. 

Tord looked up at the wall dividing it in half was some dark oak paneling, above that however there was a hand painted mural of a mermaid swimming under a dock, twisting and turning between the support beams of it. A man appeared to be looking for her over head, even though he was standing derectly above her. He looked at the mural for a bit more before turning back to the group.  
"Wings?" Matt asked,  
"Wings," Edd answered, "and a round of drinks for the man of the hour!" Edd declared, pushing his menu out of the way with his hand. The waiter walked up and smiled at them with a notepad in hand,  
"Hi! I'm Jake, your bartender will be Malissa, I'll be your server this evening, what can I get you?" 

Edd ordered a round of drinks and some hot wings. Tord looked up at the lights, they had pieces of sea glass forming the coverings for the light fixtures, casting a hazy glow over everything. The ceiling was covered in fishing nets with different things under it, fake lobsters, dried star fish, lobster traps. The ceiling was painted like there was a sea above Tord's head, filled with fish, coral and mermaids. He could swear he saw the sunlight glittering up at surface level. 

Tom clunked his elbow against Tord's,  
"Quite a view, huh?" Tord took his neck out of the craned position to look down at Tom,  
"Yeah." Tom slid some hot wings, that Tord had apparently ignored the smell and arrival of, closer to Tord.  
"Try some, best wings in town." Tom hooked a thumb and pulled the collar of his blue dress shirt out. Bragging like he ran the place, Tord picked one up, the sauce getting on his hands, and took a bite. He coughed. "Spicy." He said through coughs, Tom laughed and passed him a drink,  
"You'll get used to it." Tord picked the drink up with his not sauce dotted hand and took a sip, it tasted fruity but hit hard on a mango after taste flavour. It felt slightly fizzy as Tord drank it, with a small kick. 

"Damn," Tord whispered as he set the drink back on the table, he coughed again the drink not getting rid of all of the sauce. Tom watched Tord with his head in his hand, he crunched on the side of onion rings the wing platters came with. The drink clinked on the hardwood table as Tord set it down after another swig.  
"Good?" Tom asked with an eyebrow peaked.  
"Yeah, it's been awhile sense I've had anything with a nice punch to it though." 

Tom smirked and grabbed a hot wing out of its' basket,  
"We'll have to change that then." Tord looked at Tom and hardly glanced away as he grabbed another spicy hot wing.  
"I'm sure we will." He bit into the wing with a returning smirk at Tom, who had frozen mid bite, until Tord started coughing again. Then he nervously laughed and, what could have only seemed to have been, looked away. His cheeks slightly pink near the bone. _The booze must already be getting to him, weird._

Tord's gaze snapped up at the sound of Edd's and Matt's laughter, Edd was trying to force Matt to eat some celery and was practically laying on top of him trying. Matt however was shielding his mouth with his hands and laughing wildly. He sighed lightly and turn to continue talking with Tom, but Tom was now heavily invested in tracing the notches in the table and nursing on his drink. His face was a bit more flushed now, Tord could see his shoulders relaxing with each sip of what smelled like vodka. 

_ 

Cheap vodka was apparently the ticket for Tom. After he finished the glass he was drinking he started cracking jokes again. Two more of those later; now on his fourth, he currently had his arm slung around Tord's shoulders and resting most of his weight on him. Matt smiled slyly sipping on his virgin bloody marry. He nudged Edd,  
"Don't you think we should," he quickly looked around the table, "ah! Get another round of drinks for the good man?" 

Edd looked at Matt with a confused look then saw what Matt was staring at, Tord's panicked face as Tom leaned on him and sung sea shanties.  
"Oh, but of course! Let's go." Edd dragged Matt out of the booth and towards the bartender who was chatting with their waiter. 

"Drinks!" Tom cheered, almost spilling his drink. Tord reached out and grabbed it righting it before it did. He tried to take it from Tom, but his hand was dragged along with the drink. Tord got his wedged right arm free from between them, then he grabbed Tom's hand by the wrist and squeezed lightly. Tom let go so Tord sat the drink out of his reach on the table. An alcohol wreaking raspberry was blown in Tord's direction as an attempt at retaliation. Tom went limp sliding down until his head was in Tord's lap, he stared up at Tord. 

On the other hand Tord froze and returned Tom's gaze. Tom's hand reached up and cupped Tord's cheek, both of which were now flushed. He giggled and gently ran his thumb under Tord's eye,  
"Your pretty." He slurred. "Like really, pretty." Tom giggled again. 

Tord's entire face flushed, he quickly looked over to where Edd and Matt were. Edd snickered behind his hand, and Matt smirked and flashed a shiny credit card at Tord. Then they walked out of the pub. Tord looked back down at Tom, who still had his hand on Tord's face. "I gotta get you home." Tord muttered to himself, Tom however was back to singing. 

_ 

"I, am the, champion of the woooooorld!" Tom practically yelled as Tord opened the door to his apartment. He had majority of his weight resting on Tord.  
"C'mon you, let's get you to bed." Tord said, his voice sounding slightly strained, most probably from essentially carrying Tom from the bar's booth to the apartment. Tom grumbled in protest something about that his concert would go on all night, it was mostly gibberish however. 

Tord sighed,  
"You can put on an entire show, after we get you into bed, okay?" Tom muttered more gibberish. They stumbled towards Tom's bedroom and Tord's arms felt immediately lighter as soon as he set Tom down on his bed.  
"Good, nightttt." Tom says, his tone slow and uneven.  
"Shoes." Tord stated. 

Shoes clicked against hardwood as Tom kicked them off and crawled farther into bed.  
"Night." Tord said to the Tom shaped lump.  
"Nighhhht." Tom drawled. An arm stuck out of the covers and waved Tord off. The door click shut as Tord pulled it close behind himself. He stood there a moment, waiting. Soon he heard deep snoring and took his hand off the door.  
"He's definitely going to have a rager tomorrow." 

Tord walked to the kitchen and grabbed a glass. Then he went to the bathroom, he flung open Tom's medicine cabinet and grabbed some headache meds. Then filled the glass up with water from the sink. Tord snuck back into Tom's room and placed the bottle next to the glass of water he also set on Tom's night stand. He stretched and cracked his back then headed for the couch.  
"What a day." Tord muttered.


	20. The Good ‘Ol Days

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the support through Hits and Kudos, I can’t express enough how much they all mean to me. This chapters song is Meet Me In The Woods by Lord Huron.

### The Good ‘Ol Days

_"There has to be something," Tord throws a piece of crumpled paper into his already overflowing bin, "there has to be, somewhere!" Tord groans in frustration and cups his face in his hands. He swaps the pen in his hand for the pencil behind his ear.  
"Oh god." He writes manically on the wrinkled piece of paper in front of him._

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_A loud bang bounces off the walls of his room from Tord slamming his hands down on his desk. He wipes sweat from his forehead with a oil covered rag. The door to his room creaks as Nathan poked his head through the door.  
"Sir? I brought you your dinner."  
"Yes, yes set it with the others." Tord loosely gestures to the slowly but steadily growing pile of trays on his crumply made bed._

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_"This," Nathan starts, he watches as Tord momentarily stops writing. " this isn't healthy, let alone not good for you." Tord continues writing not bothering to even look at Nathan.  
"I am not stopping until I figure it out. You know I can't."_

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_Nathan walks over to Tord's desk, it's covered in papers, some having unreadable words on them. Others having various diagrams, mostly of three men and Tord, or even overly analyzistic models of a red robot. He placed a hand on the page Tord was currently drawing on, of the robot stepping on the three men._

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_"I can not let this continue. Sir, you have an obsession." Tord rips his eyes off of the paper and leers at Nathan,  
"And what of it! I know my plan could've worked, it has too. Or this all would've been for nothing." Tord trails of, his eyes staring into a distant land, he swivels so he's facing the desk completely before writing on a scrap of paper, wrinkled and indended with an erased previous drawing._

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_The door slams as it gets pushed so hard it rams the wall. Adam walks in carrying a small notebook. He tightens the belt over his standard issue Red Army coat, and adjusts the collar of said coat. Adam clears his throat as he flips open the notebook, he quickly skims the page before closing it.  
"Ah, Red. Still at it I see?" The heels on his boots click against the hardwood as he walks over to the desk. He grabs the edge of a page and turns it to himself._

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_Tord is currently blocking out both of Nathan's and Adam's existences and muttering to himself about 'the element of timing and surprise'. Nathan subconsciously chews on the nail of his thumb as he watches Tord.  
"We have to get him out of this room."  
"That's the smartest thing you've said all day!" Adam laughs at his own joke and claps Nathan on the back, Nathan jumps at the action._

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_"The real question is how?" Adam scratches his chin, a sly smirk spreads across his face. He pulls Nathan close to himself and whispers into his ear,  
"Now you see," He starts, "he's most certainly running low on paper right now, look at him," They look at Tord who is currently writing in tiny print on sticky notes. "Hence, I suggest him and I go get some more, and as soon as the door closes behind us you lock it and put that chair in front of it."  
Nathan looks from Adam to Tord to the small sofa chair on the other side of the room.  
"Isn't that a bit, I don't know, mean? Plus I-" _

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_Adam sighs loudly interrupting Nathan,  
"He's been in here for weeks, he has to get out of this room." Nathan runs his hand through his dirty blond hair,  
"I, guess so." He responds hesitantly._

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_"Red," Adam slowly coos, "you must be running out of paper by now, yeah?" He grabs Tord by the shoulders and crouches as he speaks. Which is an awkward position for some one who is shorter then Tord, at about 5'7".  
"No actually." Tord pulls out two packages of blank printer paper, equaling a collective of about 400 pieces of paper.  
"How? You haven't left this room in over a week!"  
"I asked Nathan to deliver it for me, plus I don't like wasting paper, it's expensive." Adam turned to Nathan,  
"Teal! How could you have failed to mention this!"  
Nathan smiled sheepishly and shrugged.  
"You insisted, plus you sounded really confident." Adam sighed and slowly ran his hand down his face._

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_"I am running out of pens though." Tord says as he twirls the pen in his hand. Adam's hand pauses,  
"Well, shouldn't we go get some? I need to, show you something while we're out." Tord rubs his left arm, his robotic right one squeaking at the action,  
"I don't know, I really need to figure this out." He looks up and makes eye contact with Adam, who's stare is ice like and unwavering.  
"But, I suppose one trip out would be fine."_

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_Tord held his left wrist with his right hand behind his back as they walked. His breast pocket of his jacket had double a bakers dozen pens in it. He stared at the ground, Tord was walking side by side with Adam. Who keep peaking at a page in his notebook.  
"Alright we're here." They stopped outside a section of the base Tord had hardly travelled to, they stood in front of a metal gateway, with the number four painted neatly on a wooden sign placed hanging next to the entrance._

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_Adam led Tord through the metal arch to keep following the path they were walking on.  
"See, dear Red, even if your so high up the chain, doesn't mean you know everything that goes on in your grounds. Especially after your 'incident'." Adam keeps a firm grip on Tord's shoulders as he leads him through the grounds._

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_"Whether you realize it or not, your entire system for this army is tiered. You used to be at the top, now you're around, third I'd say. We are currently standing in the lowest you can be, a four. Which is," Tord watches as various people are going through basic training.  
"Soldiers." He mutters, Adam nods and pats him on the shoulder with one hand.  
"Precisely." _

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_"What does it matter?" Tord remarks, "Of course there at the bottom, they're the least experienced." Adam sighs,  
"It's not the problem of the tier lists' existence, it's how it's used." They walk to a guarded building, Adam waves a hand at them and they step aside. The room they walk into is similar to a long hallway but wider. There are cots crammed together and pushed up against the walls at the end of each cot is a small chest, there is also a dented washroom sign on the other end of the hallway. The floor was caked with dry mud from many a boots, the walls had cracks in them, and the white paint on the ceiling appeared to be yellowing._

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_"This is the only bathroom the soldiers in this building get to use, they get fed once or twice a day. Depends on how good they did during their drills." Tord stared at the room, his expression stone like.  
"What of it? There's nothing I can do about this, not now anyways."_

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_Adam's smile pulled into a thin line,  
"Oh, but there is. Trust me."_

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_"They're going to notice, there is no way in hell they won't." Tord states as he waves his hand at the diagram of Adam's plan. Adam blows a raspberry,  
"So? It's not like they can un-fix the buildings. Besides it'll be good for you you can get out of that room. Plus maybe you'll drop that crazy idea that there is some outcome to your last mission where you, you don't get shot out of the air like a duck in hunting season!" _

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_Tord subtly flinches, he quickly looks down at the diagram in front of him. Adam clears his throat,  
"What's the worse that could happen? The council yells at you, then what? Kick you out? They'd never."_

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	21. Matt, The Beauty Product Whisperer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always that you all for every hit and kudos they all mean so much to me. And the song for this chapter is Campus by Vampire Weekend. Enjoy!

###  Matt, The Beauty Product Whisperer

Tord leans forward and spits into the sink, he brings his head up, continuing to brush his teeth. He runs his free hand through his hair, it was starting to turn back to its natural hair colour being a neutral brown. 

Tom bursts through the bathroom door, sliding into the bathroom, quickly he drops onto his knees and the contents of his stomach are propelled into the toilet. His hands are firmly pressed on the sides of the toilet bowl. Tom groans and rests his head on the base of the toilet tank barely above the bowl. 

The tap squeaks as Tord turns it on, he grabs the glass resting upside down on the counter top of the sink. He fills it with water and holds it out to Tom.  
"Here." Tord leans down some so Tom can grab the glass easier. A gurgling noises emits from Tom as he rinses his mouth out with the clean water.  
"Thanks." He croaks, before letting his head hit the toilet's tank again. "I'm," Tom's upper body lurched forward, nothing happened and Tom audibly swallowed, "I'm just, going to make coffee, and a greasy cure all." 

Tord nodded as he grabbed hair gel and a hair brush off the counter top,  
"You do that, if you need to hurl remember to aim for the sink." Tom flushed the toilet and nodded before hobbling out of the bathroom, most probably heading for the kitchen. 

The door creaked close as Tord hit it with his foot. He brushes his hair, he sees the difference in colour and touches the roots. Tord sighs, he knows just who he'll have to ask for help. 

_ 

"Thanks Matt, again." 

Matt picks up a package of hair dye and holds it up to a tuff of Tord's hair, now brushed and properly spiked, with an unwanted fade through colour as it peaked into some of the smaller spikes, leaving the main two untouched for now. The box advertised a colour a few shades darker then Tord's preferred honey colour. Matt hummed and picked up another box and compared the two. 

"Don't mention it, I've dyed wigs lots of times. Can't be too different." Matt set one of the boxes back and walked farther into the isle, Tord followed him looking at the assortment of colours.  
"I hope not." Tord whispered to himself, as Matt grabbed another box.  
"This one look close?" Matt asked as he passed the box to Tord. He turned the box around in his hands before nodding and passing it back to Matt. 

_ 

Tord shifted on the toilet seat cover as Matt walked around him, putting dye in his hair. The plastic gloves crinkled as Matt moved his hands.  
"Sense, I'm dying your hair anyways, wanna do barber talk?" 

The towel around Tord's shoulders fell some and Matt fixed it, getting some dye on it in the process. "Sure. Oh, I went to this awesome bar last night with a few friends." Matt hummed and nodded his head as he continued dying Tord's hair.  
"I bet the tallest one was the most prettiest right? And he clearly had the best shirt in the whole bar." 

"I'm not so sure," Tord teased, "pretty sure the waiter looked way better, the man knows how to pull off a spaghetti stain." 

Matt playfully gasped and held his hand over his chest as if he were offended.  
"Well I never!" He rubbed some of the dye into Tord's scalp.  
"It's true." Tord shrugged as he made eye contact with Matt in the mirror. 

"Oh really?" A sly smirk spread across Matt's face, "I thought you would've voted for Tom." Tord's face heated up, he blew a raspberry.  
"Yeah? Why, why would you say that?" Tord puffed out his chest and had a firm tone of voice, even if it wavered some after he stuttered. 

The bottle of dye was almost empty now.  
"Oh, just because he was literally like putty in your lap last night." Matt teased, Tord's face darkened another shade of red.  
"You, you guys left me to deal with him, alone!" Tord grumbled as he crossed his arms. 

Matt wiped some of his own hair out of his face with his forearm.  
"We knew you could handle him. It wasn't that bad was it?" Matt tossed the empty package and dye bottle in the bin, along with the permanently stained gloves.  
"I guess not." Tord shrugged.  
"Hey, at least you got to see him preform. Man he thinks he's some big time singer when he's plastered." 

Tord laughed as Matt took off the towel from around his neck.  
"Now you go back to Tom's and wait fifteen minutes then shower, okay?"  
"Yeah, yeah I know mom." Tord teased,  
"Be good at school!" Matt called as Tord left the apartment. 

_ 

"Ugh, how long is this going to be like this." Tord gestured to the small bit of dyed scalp at his hairline. Tom looked up at him from his spot on the couch. "Probably only a few days, I haven't dyed my hair in a long time so I can't really say." 

"You dyed your hair?" Tord stared at Tom as if the answer to his question could change the fate of the universe.  
"Yeah, only for a bit in high school." Tom shrugged before looking back down at the magazine in his hands. Tord got onto his knees beside the couch and grabbed Tom's arm with both of his.  
"What colours? Is there any photos? Did you look like an edgy teenager?" 

Tom squinted at Tord,  
"Dude chill, it was just for a few months."  
"Months!" Tord said gobsmacked, "At least tell me the colour man. It's for the greater good." 

Tord stared up at Tom, giving him a 'puppy dog eyes' stare. Tom hit him on the nose with a rolled up version of the magazine he had been reading.  
"Quit that, it's creepy." Tom grumbled as he unfolded his magazine and flattened it.  
"Please." Tord drawled. Tom groaned and ran his hand through his hair. 

"Fine, fine. There shouldn't be any photos left of it, but I dyed my hair." Tom paused and sighed, "black and red." Tord stood up and practically bolted to the door.   
"Where are you going?" Tom called,  
"Edd's!" Tord shouted back already in the hall. 

Tom nodded and went back to his magazine. His brain clicked as he realized why Tord went over there. He threw his magazine onto the couch and ran after Tord. Tom screamed at Tord as he ran,  
"Tord! Get back here!"


	22. Whata Lovely Park Mrs.Jenkins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The quartet go to a park. Shenanigans and bonding ensue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always thank you all for every kudos and hit, it means a lot to me that you all are enjoying this fic. The song for this chapter is Something For Your M.I.N.D by Superorganism.

### Whata Lovely Park Mrs.Jenkins

"Fuck this thing is heavy." Tom complained as he kicked up dirt from the dirt and gravel pathway. He was carrying a picnic basket filled with lunch.  
"Language!" Edd said from the almost front of the group as he carried a cooler, Matt was ahead of him slightly mostly because he was skipping, but he also had the least clunky thing to carry which was the blanket. Tom groaned and vaguely did an eye roll like gesture. Tord was walking behind Tom and to his left slightly, he had his arms wrapped around some fold out chairs, one for each of them.

The four of them walked into a small clearing before another patch of trees. 

Matt laid down the blanket and flattened it, meanwhile Tom softly dropped the basket in the fluffy grass before dropping into the grass himself.  
"Why'd we bring you a chair if you were just going to do that." Tord teased as he stood by Tom, who was now on his back and looking up at the sky.  
"Good enough weather for it, why not?" 

Tord nodded to himself and shrugged, he passed Edd a chair to unfold. The cooler was placed next to the basket. Matt took a chair from Tord, unfolded it, then sat on it. He reached into the basket and came back with a sandwich.  
"Want one?" He pointed the sandwich at Edd,  
"Sure." Edd sat down on his own fold out chair placed next to Matt's on the left. Matt tossed the sandwich at Edd, who caught it. 

Matt pulled out another sandwich and pointed at Tord. He peaked an eyebrow and wiggled the sandwich.  
"I'm good." Tord said as he swatted the air in time with his answer. 

Tom had rolled closer to the blanket, probably staining his clothes green from the grass.  
"How 'bout you?" Matt held the sandwich out so Tom could see it. He shrugged,  
"Alright." Tom stuck an arm in the air, creating a flat surface with his hand for the sandwich. Matt smirked, before promptly dropping the sandwich on Tom's face. It nailed him straight on the nose. 

"Oi!" Tom growled and sat up, sandwich in hand. Matt laughed and clutched his stomach. Tom yelled at Matt threatening to do something distasteful with the poor sandwich plus a now cackling Matt. 

Edd sighed and pinched the bridge of his noise as he bit into his sandwich.  
"Will you two knock it off, it's the first quality nice day we've all had off in weeks. Keep this up I'll lock both of you in the car without cracked windows, and me and Tord will enjoy this weather and lunch by ourselves." 

The final fold out chair squeaked as Tom unfolded it, he sat on it backwards between Edd and Tord. He muttered to himself and angrily took big bites out of the slightly squished sandwich. 

Tord watched as a random person walked by them a few yards away. He swore he saw the collar of a familiar blue trench coat in the distance. They turned towards him and they both stared at each other for a few moments before the other person speed walked into the woods. He looked at the empty spot for a few more seconds before tearing his gaze away. Tord swallowed, his mouth was dry as desert sand during a three month drought. He twisted so he could reach the cooler and grabbed a drink, he wrapped his hand around a chilled can of off brand soda. 

The can made a satisfying clicking noise as Tord popped the tab. He took a few sips and could hear the sounds of the carbon releasing from the liquid. 

Tord looked at Edd as Edd playfully pulled Matt's baseball cap over his face, before pushing him slightly. They were bickering over something Tord hadn't heard the start of and were currently play fighting. Tom had taken out his flask and was drinking from it while he watched the sky. Tord looked down at the soda can and held it with both hands. 

He set the can down in the cup holder in the arm rest of the folding chair. Tord stared where the person had disappeared into the woods, he stood up and stared walking towards the tree line. 

_ 

Once Tord was in the patch of trees he looked for evidence of the strange person. There wasn't a path to follow through this patch of trees so he'd have to improvise. He looked around the area of where they both had entered, the ground was too dry to leave tracks, and no obvious evidence of someone had walked through there. 

The ground was nice and solid, it was mostly dirt though there were some patches of grass where the light shined heavier. Trees were pretty evenly spaced, but most of the tree tops were pretty low still only leaving small cracks for light to get in. There was a few decently sized rocks covered in moss. Surprisingly there wasn't a lot of twigs on the ground, just the odd one here or there. Tord couldn't see any broken ones or squished baby saplings. 

Closest thing to a few stepped on twigs or plants was an old downed tree, but there was moss growing on the side touching the ground so it wasn't fresh. Tord sighed and sat down on the trunk of the tree, it was still sturdy so it was probably not that old Tord guessed. He pulled one leg up and rested his head on his knee. Did somebody even come in here? He questioned himself. 

A long drawn out sigh passed Tord's lips. He was looking down at the grass when Tom came through the same tree line, though he was a little farther down from where Tord was sitting. Tom stepped over plants and rocks to get to Tord, once he got there he sat down next to him on the log. 

"This is sure one hell of a dense area for a park." Tom complained to himself under his breath as he wiped some dirt off of his shirt.  
"Yeah, I guess it is." Tord shrugged and looked at Tom from the the corner of his eye. Tom looked slightly shocked that Tord had heard him, before regaining his composure and nodding.  
"Why are you sitting in here anyways?" Tom asks, turning his torso to face Tord. He shrugged again,  
"Thought I saw something, Must've been wrong though." Tom copied the way Tord was sitting,  
"Yeah?" Tom asked,  
"Yeah." Tord repeated. 

They both sat quietly for a moment Tord listening to the sounds of the wildlife in the park, and Tom watching Tord. Tom looks at the way he came in and spoke,  
"We should probably go back." 

Tord nodded in agreement, however neither of them moved. Tom pulls his flask from his pocket and takes a few sips of liquid courage. He decided to press a little, "You sure it's nothing?" He asked, "You'd say if there was something trying to kill us like a teen thriller, right?" Tord turned towards Tom,  
"Yeah of course, why'd you ask?" 

Tom swirled the contents of the flash and took another sip,  
"It's just," Tom sighs and tucks away the flask, "you've been kinda, twitchy? Lately, I don't know. I've seen you jumping at shadows and looking over your shoulder. I just want to check if you're doing alright." Tom wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and looks away, before returning to look at Tord. 

A shaky chuckle fell from Tord's lips.  
"I," Tord pauses, he rubs the back of his neck with his right hand, "I'm just being a little paranoid is all. I'm not used to being able to relax this much with out something happening. Back with, The Red Army," that name tasted fowl in Tord's mouth, "I was always on edge one problem after the next. But with you, and Matt and Edd, it's like being on holiday. I'm just not used to it, and, if I let my guard down to long I. I just don't want something to happen." 

The flask clanked as Tom unscrewed the top and held it out for Tord. He thanked him and took it, it tasted like Tom's favourite vodka brand.  
"You shouldn't have to worry like that all the time," Tom stated, "it's okay to relax. Nothing bad will happen, promise." 

Tord hummed in agreement,  
"Old habits die hard." Tord drank some more from the flask. Tom looked from the flask to Tord, though Tord didn't notice.  
"True. But they can die." Tom said. Tord passed the flask back to Tom, at this point it was mostly empty, Tom drank some of what was left. Tord let his leg drop and faced Tom better.  
"Yeah, I guess they do eventually. With enough work." 

Tom patted Tord's back.  
"Shall we?" He asked. Tord hopped off the log and nodded. Tom followed suit and put the flask away when he was on the ground. They both emerged from the cluster of trees and headed back to Matt and Edd.


End file.
